Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Price Target Raised to $122.00

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) had its price objective lifted by Wells Fargo & Company from $105.00 to $122.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider's stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on STX. BNP Paribas raised Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Seagate Technology currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $118.89.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 0.2%

Seagate Technology stock traded up $0.29 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $117.34. The stock had a trading volume of 4,090,122 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,990,491. The company has a 50-day moving average of $87.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $92.80. The company has a market cap of $24.90 billion, a PE ratio of 21.45 and a beta of 1.32. Seagate Technology has a fifty-two week low of $63.19 and a fifty-two week high of $118.86.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 14.67% and a negative return on equity of 63.48%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The business's revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to repurchase up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. Seagate Technology's payout ratio is 41.62%.

Insider Transactions at Seagate Technology

In other Seagate Technology news, Director Judy Bruner sold 10,446 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.71, for a total transaction of $1,135,584.66. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 12,268 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,333,654.28. The trade was a 45.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total value of $1,691,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 106,856 shares of company stock worth $11,202,861 in the last quarter. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of STX. MBB Public Markets I LLC acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the 1st quarter valued at $300,000. United Services Automobile Association acquired a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the 1st quarter valued at $385,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 6.2% in the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 4,314 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $366,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 77.4% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,351 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 7,569 shares during the period. Finally, Panoramic Capital LLC grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 591.8% in the first quarter. Panoramic Capital LLC now owns 131,433 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $11,165,000 after acquiring an additional 112,433 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company's stock.

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.