Donoghue Forlines LLC Invests $1.43 Million in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX)

Key Points

• Donoghue Forlines LLC acquired a new position in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC, purchasing 16,773 shares valued at approximately $1,425,000.
• Multiple brokerages have upgraded Seagate Technology's stock ratings, with some analysts increasing price objectives significantly, indicating a strong bullish sentiment in the market.
• Seagate Technology recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.72 per share, with a dividend payout ratio of 42.54%, signaling a commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Donoghue Forlines LLC purchased a new position in shares of Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 16,773 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,425,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in STX. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,761,534 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $238,348,000 after buying an additional 352,300 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd purchased a new position in Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,145,000. Advisory Services Network LLC increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 23,529 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,031,000 after acquiring an additional 2,496 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 1,088.7% during the 4th quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 125,900 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $10,494,000 after buying an additional 115,309 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter worth $22,961,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Seagate Technology from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $100.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $122.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $151.44.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 26,816 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.58, for a total value of $3,153,025.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 38,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,477,681.56. This trade represents a 41.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 63,418 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $7,927,250.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 14,658 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,832,250. The trade was a 81.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 428,546 shares of company stock valued at $52,912,056 over the last ninety days. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Seagate Technology stock traded up $1.24 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $151.69. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,759,360 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,971,287. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has a one year low of $63.19 and a one year high of $157.62. The company has a market capitalization of $32.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.41, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.50. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $142.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $109.85.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.45 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $2.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 16.15% and a negative return on equity of 169.60%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 29.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 30th. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.54%.

Seagate Technology declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to buy up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

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.