Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Sets New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report)'s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $135.00 to $145.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. Seagate Technology traded as high as $132.23 and last traded at $131.46, with a volume of 1544708 shares. The stock had previously closed at $126.97.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on STX. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Friday, May 23rd. BNP Paribas upgraded Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Seagate Technology from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $100.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, May 16th. Barclays increased their price target 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Seagate Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $119.42.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares in the company, valued at $46,988,047.12. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Michael R. Cannon sold 24,190 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.00, for a total value of $2,878,610.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,289,365. The trade was a 69.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 335,251 shares of company stock worth $38,760,472 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new position in Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Elequin Capital LP acquired a new position in Seagate Technology in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Seagate Technology in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new position in Seagate Technology in the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 2,200.0% during the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 460 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 3.5%

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $93.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $94.09. The company has a market cap of $27.89 billion, a PE ratio of 24.02 and a beta of 1.40.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. The firm 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%. Seagate Technology's revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Seagate Technology's payout ratio is currently 41.62%.

Seagate Technology announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 22nd that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.

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