Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Gap Up Following Strong Earnings

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $81.60, but opened at $87.14. Seagate Technology shares last traded at $87.30, with a volume of 2,514,241 shares traded.

The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.14 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 63.48% and a net margin of 14.67%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be given 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 3.09%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

STX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $90.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $130.00 to $112.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Seagate Technology presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $114.89.

Insider Buying and Selling at Seagate Technology

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. This represents a 3.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the first quarter worth about $272,000. Forte Capital LLC ADV raised its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV now owns 30,899 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,625,000 after acquiring an additional 4,329 shares in the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 11.3% in the 1st quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 4,699 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $399,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 22.2% during the first quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 16,410 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,394,000 after purchasing an additional 2,976 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cable Hill Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Seagate Technology in the first quarter worth $200,000. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company's stock.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 3.4 %

The firm has a market cap of $19.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.01 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.82.

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.