Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty-one research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation and thirteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $119.42.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on STX. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, June 9th. Barclays lifted their target price on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $140.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of STX traded up $1.53 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $142.22. The stock had a trading volume of 646,551 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,109,486. The stock's 50 day moving average is $110.03 and its 200 day moving average is $97.23. The firm has a market cap of $30.18 billion, a PE ratio of 20.56 and a beta of 1.40. Seagate Technology has a 1 year low of $63.19 and a 1 year high of $142.28.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio is presently 41.62%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 70,000 shares of the company's 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 485,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $53,167,061.19. This represents a 12.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 599 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total value of $77,870.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,329 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,342,770. This represents a 5.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 393,791 shares of company stock worth $46,380,998 in the last three months. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STX. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Seagate Technology by 133.1% in the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,681 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,094,000 after buying an additional 7,240 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,729,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 5,791 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 9,116.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 257,144 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $21,844,000 after purchasing an additional 254,354 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Seagate Technology by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 18,085 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,561,000 after purchasing an additional 577 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.