Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX)

Key Points

• Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 15.1%, now owning 16,162 shares valued at approximately $1.37 million.
• Insider sales included CFO Gianluca Romano selling over 26,800 shares and CEO William D. Mosley selling 70,000 shares, reducing their ownership by 41.32% and 12.60% respectively.
• Seagate Technology's board approved a $5 billion share buyback plan, indicating a belief that the stock is undervalued, alongside a declared quarterly dividend of $0.72 per share.

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) by 15.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,162 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,122 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.'s holdings in Seagate Technology were worth $1,373,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 16,530,152 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,426,717,000 after acquiring an additional 162,561 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 56.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,621,162 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,348,262,000 after acquiring an additional 5,640,443 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,295,225 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $370,013,000 after acquiring an additional 132,713 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,761,534 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $238,348,000 after acquiring an additional 352,300 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 13.4% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,655,699 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $142,903,000 after acquiring an additional 195,090 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:STX remained flat at $154.81 during trading on Monday. The stock had a trading volume of 2,509,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,361,865. The company has a market cap of $32.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.50. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $139.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $108.27. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has a 1-year low of $63.19 and a 1-year high of $157.62.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.45 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $2.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.40 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 169.60% and a net margin of 16.15%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 29.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 6.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 22nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 30th. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio is currently 42.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Seagate Technology news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 70,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.47, for a total transaction of $7,662,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 485,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,167,061.19. The trade was a 12.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 26,816 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.58, for a total value of $3,153,025.28. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 38,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,477,681.56. The trade was a 41.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 426,046 shares of company stock worth $52,535,806. Insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Seagate Technology from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $175.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "negative" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $135.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $151.44.

Seagate Technology 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.