1,938 Shares in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC $STX Purchased by Sterling Investment Counsel LLC

Key Points

• Sterling Investment Counsel initiated a new stake in Seagate by buying 1,938 shares (~$534,000) in Q4, while overall institutional ownership stands at 92.87% and several other funds modestly increased positions.
• Analysts have been raising targets and remain positive—Seagate's consensus rating is a "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $494.13, and firms like Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan raised targets to $582 and $600 respectively.
• Corporate insiders have been net sellers recently: CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares for about $8.41 million under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, and insiders sold 112,223 shares ($46.7M) over the past 90 days, leaving insiders with 0.79% ownership.

Sterling Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,938 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $534,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Seagate Technology by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Sovereign Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,063 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $293,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,446 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,500,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,428 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $337,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,950 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $537,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,880 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,619,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on STX shares. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their target price on Seagate Technology from $430.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Barclays raised their target price on Seagate Technology from $370.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Wedbush lifted their target price on Seagate Technology from $290.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $468.00 to $582.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $525.00 to $600.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $494.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $420.73, for a total value of $8,414,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 355,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at $149,607,801.43. This represents a 5.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP James Ci Lee sold 673 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $348.85, for a total value of $234,776.05. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 257 shares of the company's stock, valued at $89,654.45. This trade represents a 72.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 112,223 shares of company stock worth $46,711,217. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company's stock.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STX opened at $547.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.63, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $119.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.61. The stock's 50-day moving average is $422.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $334.41. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has a 1-year low of $72.62 and a 1-year high of $553.57.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 27th. The data storage provider reported $3.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.77 by $0.34. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 936.38% and a net margin of 19.59%.The business had revenue of $2.83 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.03 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Seagate Technology has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.200-3.600 EPS. Analysts forecast that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 6.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 25th were given a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 25th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio is currently 33.48%.

About Seagate Technology

Seagate Technology NASDAQ: STX is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage products and systems. The firm's product portfolio includes traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), hybrid storage devices and integrated storage systems aimed at enterprise, cloud, OEM and consumer markets. Seagate also provides services that support its hardware offerings, including data recovery and storage management solutions.

Seagate's products are used in a wide array of applications, from large-scale data centers and cloud infrastructure to desktop and portable consumer devices.

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