Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Price Down 1.8% - What's Next?

Key Points

• Seagate shares fell 1.8% to $630.49 on elevated trading volume, despite a favorable long-term outlook tied to rising AI, cloud and data-center demand for high-capacity storage.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: 22 analysts rate STX a Buy and five a Hold, producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $975.92.
• Investors are watching whether Seagate can meet its Q1 fiscal 2027 EPS guidance of $7.10–$7.50; valuation concerns and substantial insider selling could add pressure if results or guidance disappoint.

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) traded down 1.8% during trading on Friday. The stock traded as low as $621.00 and last traded at $630.49. 5,549,031 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 26% from the average session volume of 4,409,981 shares. The stock had previously closed at $642.14.

Seagate Technology News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Seagate Technology this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Polen Capital identified Seagate as a beneficiary of rising artificial-intelligence data-storage demand. Growing AI workloads, cloud activity and enterprise data volumes are supporting demand for high-capacity nearline hard drives. Seagate Technology Holdings plc Stands to Benefit From Rising AI Data Storage Demand
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment has strengthened, with J.P. Morgan issuing a Buy rating and reports highlighting positive updates from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Zacks also added STX to its Rank #1, or Strong Buy, list. Seagate Tech Gets a Buy from J.P. Morgan
• Positive Sentiment: Recent research points to strong hard-drive demand from data centers and cloud providers, improving pricing power, capacity tightness and a robust enterprise-storage pipeline. These factors have driven higher earnings expectations and several analyst upgrades. Learn Why the Bull Case for Seagate Could Change Following Analyst Upgrades
• Neutral Sentiment: Seagate’s Q1 fiscal 2027 earnings preview remains favorable, with management’s outlook supported by healthy storage demand and pricing. Investors are likely focused on whether the company can meet or exceed its guidance of $7.10–$7.50 in EPS. STX Stock Earnings Preview
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the constructive outlook, STX has decreased in the latest market update, possibly reflecting profit-taking, elevated valuation concerns and technical weakness after its recent advance. At roughly 45 times earnings, the shares leave less room for an earnings or guidance disappointment.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on STX. Argus upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $1,187.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $825.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Zacks Research downgraded Seagate Technology from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 28th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $1,240.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Twenty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $975.92.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $143.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.42 and a beta of 2.06. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $827.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $811.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The data storage provider reported $5.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.10 by $0.61. The firm had revenue of $3.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.50 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 26.11% and a return on equity of 369.98%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 48.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.59 earnings per share. Seagate Technology has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 7.100-7.500 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 35.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 24th were given a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 24th. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 49,984 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $772.16, for a total transaction of $38,595,645.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,756 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,634,952.96. The trade was a 41.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, EVP Ban Teh sold 52,730 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $782.08, for a total value of $41,239,078.40. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 5,810 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,543,884.80. This trade represents a 90.08% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 466,959 shares of company stock worth $378,840,741. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 2,655.9% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,414,136 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,329,641,000 after buying an additional 2,326,538 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 3,872.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 967,528 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $378,985,000 after acquiring an additional 943,170 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 32.2% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 965,565 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $378,267,000 after purchasing an additional 235,359 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 834,705 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $805,490,000 after acquiring an additional 6,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 67.6% during the first quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 709,160 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $277,821,000 after purchasing an additional 285,949 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

Seagate Technology Holdings plc NASDAQ: STX is a data storage company that develops and manufactures mass-capacity storage products and solutions. Its portfolio is centered on hard disk drives (HDDs) used in cloud data centers, enterprise systems, network-attached storage, video and imaging applications, and personal computers.

The company also provides storage-related services and solutions designed to help organizations store, manage, protect, and access large volumes of digital information.

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