Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Sold by Machina Capital S.A.S.

Key Points

• Machina Capital S.A.S. has reduced its holdings in Seagate Technology by 33.1%, now owning 9,496 shares worth $807,000.
• Wall Street analysts have raised their target prices for Seagate Technology, with UBS Group setting it at $155.00 and Bank of America at $165.00, indicating a generally positive outlook.
• Seagate Technology announced a $5.00 billion stock repurchase plan, reflecting management's belief that the stock may be undervalued.

Machina Capital S.A.S. lessened its stake in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) by 33.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,496 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 4,708 shares during the quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S.'s holdings in Seagate Technology were worth $807,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in STX. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 11,946 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,031,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 29,099 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,512,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 169,918 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $14,666,000 after purchasing an additional 10,894 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,974,117 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,414,446,000 after acquiring an additional 1,814,821 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Corebridge Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 87,792 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,577,000 after acquiring an additional 1,964 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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 note on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $85.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Seagate Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $134.38.

Seagate Technology Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of STX traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $150.53. 1,005,957 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,933,138. The firm has a market cap of $31.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.75 and a beta of 1.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.75. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has a 12-month low of $63.19 and a 12-month high of $153.88.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.14 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 17.49% and a negative return on equity of 105.02%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 25th were paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.62%.

Seagate Technology declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 22nd that allows the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to reacquire up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stephanie Tilenius sold 2,693 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.04, for a total value of $344,811.72. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 12,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,567,721.76. The trade was a 18.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.66, for a total transaction of $2,893,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 498,710 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $72,143,388.60. This trade represents a 3.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 395,516 shares of company stock worth $47,831,398. Insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

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.