Two Sigma Advisers LP Cuts Stock Position in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)

Two Sigma Advisers LP trimmed its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) by 44.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,300 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 75,800 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP's holdings in Seagate Technology were worth $8,225,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in STX. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,012 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $519,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 37.6% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 852 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,266 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $109,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 11,122 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $960,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,310 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,986,000 after purchasing an additional 3,576 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 6,410 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.26, for a total value of $713,176.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 4,201 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.00, for a total value of $483,115.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,644,885. The trade was a 15.44% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 111,057 shares of company stock valued at $11,685,976 in the last ninety days. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STX traded down $0.19 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $117.15. 655,640 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,980,947. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $88.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.41 and a beta of 1.32. Seagate Technology Holdings plc has a one year low of $63.19 and a one year high of $119.25.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.14 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 63.48% and a net margin of 14.67%. The company's revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 buy up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Seagate Technology's payout ratio is 41.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on STX. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. BNP Paribas Exane raised Seagate Technology from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Wall Street Zen raised Seagate Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $118.89.

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.