Legal & General Group Plc Lowers Position in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC $STX

Key Points

• Legal & General Group trimmed its Seagate Technology stake by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, though it still held about 1.52 million shares valued at roughly $419.7 million.
• Insider selling continued, with CEO William D. Mosley and EVP John Christopher Morris both selling shares under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans; insiders sold about $86.1 million of stock over the last quarter.
• Analysts remain mostly upbeat on Seagate, with several firms raising price targets and the stock carrying an average “Moderate Buy” rating; the company also reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.74 per share.

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its stake in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,524,131 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 11,544 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.70% of Seagate Technology worth $419,730,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of STX. National Pension Service increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 250,121 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $59,044,000 after purchasing an additional 54,722 shares during the last quarter. PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at $23,882,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 187,044 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $51,510,000 after purchasing an additional 8,991 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 518,806 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $142,874,000 after purchasing an additional 6,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 55.7% during the 3rd quarter. Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. now owns 50,321 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $11,879,000 after purchasing an additional 18,000 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Seagate Technology news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $751.29, for a total value of $22,538,700.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 339,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at $255,131,322.39. This trade represents a 8.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP John Christopher Morris sold 5,626 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $738.37, for a total value of $4,154,069.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 11,954 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,826,474.98. The trade was a 32.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 142,437 shares of company stock worth $86,093,575 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.79% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on STX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $525.00 to $775.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $582.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $700.00 to $840.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Susquehanna increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $485.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Seagate Technology currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $733.71.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STX opened at $812.73 on Tuesday. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has a 52 week low of $108.28 and a 52 week high of $841.31. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $574.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $416.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.16. The company has a market cap of $182.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.11 and a beta of 1.98.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The data storage provider reported $4.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.51 by $0.59. Seagate Technology had a return on equity of 1,005.65% and a net margin of 21.60%.The business had revenue of $3.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.90 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 44.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Seagate Technology has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.800-5.200 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 14.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 24th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 24th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.08%.

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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