Teacher Retirement System of Texas Makes New $2.63 Million Investment in Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 30,914 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,626,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.9% during the fourth 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 during the period. Sanders Capital LLC lifted 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 purchasing an additional 162,561 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted 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 purchasing an additional 5,640,443 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Seagate Technology by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,295,225 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $370,013,000 after buying an additional 132,713 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake 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 during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

STX traded up $2.49 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $144.50. 5,593,356 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,234,231. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.88 and a beta of 1.45. Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has a one year low of $63.19 and a one year high of $152.16. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $121.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $100.47.

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

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

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.99%. Seagate Technology's payout ratio is 41.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Seagate Technology news, 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 value of $7,927,250.00. Following the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 26,816 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.58, for a total transaction 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. Insiders have sold a total of 393,791 shares of company stock valued at $47,582,998 over the last 90 days. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on STX. Barclays raised their price target on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $99.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $123.16.

About Seagate Technology

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.