The Goldman Sachs Group Begins Coverage on Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX)

The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) in a research note released on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $170.00 price target on the data storage provider's stock.

STX has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $125.53.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

STX stock traded up $2.68 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $147.18. The company had a trading volume of 2,868,540 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,248,448. The firm has a market cap of $31.23 billion, a PE ratio of 21.27 and a beta of 1.45. Seagate Technology has a 12 month low of $63.19 and a 12 month high of $152.16. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $124.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.44.

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

Seagate Technology announced that its board has initiated 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 purchase up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th were issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 25th. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio is currently 41.62%.

Insider Activity at Seagate Technology

In other news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 599 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 10,329 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,342,770. The trade was a 5.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.66, for a total transaction of $2,893,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 498,710 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $72,143,388.60. The trade was a 3.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 393,791 shares of company stock valued at $47,582,998. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ameriflex Group Inc. bought a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Elequin Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 2,200.0% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 460 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

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.