Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Sold by Pacer Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors Inc. has reduced its stake in Seagate Technology by 24.2%, owning 22,025 shares valued at approximately $1.87 million as of the latest SEC filing.
• Seagate Technology's Board approved a $5 billion share buyback program, signaling a belief that the stock is currently undervalued.
• Despite some analysts downgrading the stock, many have issued buy ratings, with a current average target price of $134.38.

Pacer Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) by 24.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,025 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 7,019 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Seagate Technology were worth $1,871,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Seagate Technology by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,319 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $112,000 after buying an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in Seagate Technology by 51.1% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 83,222 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $7,070,000 after buying an additional 28,153 shares during the last quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Seagate Technology in the first quarter worth $1,350,000. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 15.1% in the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 16,162 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,373,000 after purchasing an additional 2,122 shares during the period. Finally, Lifeworks Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 246.3% during the first quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 24,961 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,120,000 after buying an additional 17,754 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on STX. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Susquehanna lifted their target price on Seagate Technology from $68.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "negative" rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their price target on Seagate Technology from $85.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Seagate Technology in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. They set a "buy" rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $151.44.

Insider Activity at Seagate Technology

In other Seagate Technology news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the business's 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 498,710 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,143,388.60. The trade was a 3.86% 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, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 1,725 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.00, for a total value of $248,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 12,052 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,735,488. This represents a 12.52% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 395,516 shares of company stock worth $47,831,398 over the last three months. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

STX stock traded down $2.20 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $154.81. The company had a trading volume of 3,827,283 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,170,483. The company has a market capitalization of $32.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.50. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $138.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $107.69. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has a fifty-two week low of $63.19 and a fifty-two week high of $157.45.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.45 by $0.14. The company 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 firm's revenue 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. As a group, analysts predict that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

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

Seagate Technology declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 22nd that allows the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to purchase up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's management 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.