Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to "Hold"

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. BNP Paribas raised shares of Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Bank of America increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Seagate Technology has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $118.89.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

NASDAQ:STX traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $117.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,352,617 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,993,791. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $89.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $93.18. Seagate Technology has a 12 month low of $63.19 and a 12 month high of $119.13. The company has a market capitalization of $25.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.54 and a beta of 1.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 14.67% and a negative return on equity of 63.48%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Transactions at Seagate Technology

In other Seagate Technology news, Director Judy Bruner sold 10,446 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.71, for a total value of $1,135,584.66. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,268 shares in the company, valued at $1,333,654.28. This represents a 45.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total transaction of $1,691,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares in the company, valued at $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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 162,891 shares of company stock worth $17,773,863. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. MWA Asset Management grew its position in Seagate Technology by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. MWA Asset Management now owns 19,636 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,695,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 22.7% in the fourth 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 period. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 27.0% in the fourth 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 period. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,988 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $431,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 18,098 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,562,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.