Woodline Partners LP Grows Holdings in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)

Woodline Partners LP boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) by 430.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 452,496 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 367,160 shares during the quarter. Woodline Partners LP owned 0.21% of Seagate Technology worth $39,055,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 532 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Human Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Mizuho Bank Ltd. increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 140.0% during the 4th quarter. Mizuho Bank Ltd. now owns 600 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 22.7% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 606 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, S.A. Mason LLC bought a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 70,000 shares of the 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 now owns 485,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,167,061.19. This represents a 12.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 6,410 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.26, for a total value of $713,176.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 106,856 shares of company stock worth $11,202,861. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on STX. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $118.37.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ STX traded up $3.88 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $112.74. 5,981,603 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,972,902. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.93 billion, a PE ratio of 20.61 and a beta of 1.32. Seagate Technology Holdings plc has a one year low of $63.19 and a one year high of $115.32. The company's 50 day moving average is $86.62 and its 200 day moving average is $92.74.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 quarterly revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 6.83 EPS for the current year.

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

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio is currently 41.62%.

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.