Benchmark Reaffirms Hold Rating for Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX)

Benchmark reissued their hold rating on shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on STX. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $84.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $115.94.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STX opened at $103.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $21.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -80.37 and a beta of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $101.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.16. Seagate Technology has a 52-week low of $57.79 and a 52-week high of $113.57.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.29. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 5.11% and a negative return on equity of 8.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.29) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 5.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 23rd. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -217.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Seagate Technology news, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 11,158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $1,004,220.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,599,030. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Seagate Technology news, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 11,158 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $1,004,220.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 17,767 shares in the company, valued at $1,599,030. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 9,703 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $921,785.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,185 shares in the company, valued at $1,442,575. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 47,648 shares of company stock valued at $4,705,816. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of STX. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 16,614,884 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,418,413,000 after purchasing an additional 4,685,454 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the fourth quarter valued at about $188,834,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,753,076 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,303,274,000 after acquiring an additional 746,395 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 83.2% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,014,075 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $86,572,000 after acquiring an additional 460,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Markets Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 321.7% in the fourth quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC now owns 586,120 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $50,037,000 after acquiring an additional 447,120 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Seagate Technology

Seagate Technology Holdings plc provides data storage technology and solutions in Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands, and internationally. It provides mass capacity storage products, including enterprise nearline hard disk drives (HDDs), enterprise nearline solid state drives (SSDs), enterprise nearline systems, video and image HDDs, and network-attached storage drives.