Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Gap Up - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• Seagate Technology shares gapped up at the open, with the stock last trading up about 0.4% after opening well above the previous close.
• Wall Street sentiment remains constructive: several firms recently raised price targets, including Cantor Fitzgerald and Barclays at $1,000, while the consensus rating is still Moderate Buy.
• The company posted strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates and reporting 44.1% year-over-year revenue growth, while also announcing a $0.74 quarterly dividend.

Shares of Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $1,066.07, but opened at $1,133.36. Seagate Technology shares last traded at $1,119.2380, with a volume of 968,178 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on STX. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $485.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $700.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $750.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $831.79.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 0.4%

The stock has a market capitalization of $239.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.80 and a beta of 2.04. The business's 50-day moving average is $745.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $493.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.16.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The data storage provider reported $4.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.51 by $0.59. The firm had revenue of $3.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.96 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 21.60% and a return on equity of 1,005.65%. Seagate Technology's quarterly revenue was up 44.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.90 earnings per share. Seagate Technology has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.800-5.200 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 14.14 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 24th will be issued a $0.74 dividend. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 24th. Seagate Technology's payout ratio is presently 28.08%.

Insider Activity

In other Seagate Technology news, EVP John Christopher Morris sold 5,626 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $738.37, for a total value of $4,154,069.62. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 11,954 shares in the company, valued at $8,826,474.98. The trade was a 32.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 22,488 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $774.22, for a total transaction of $17,410,659.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 42,847 shares in the company, valued at $33,173,004.34. The trade was a 34.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 141,069 shares of company stock valued at $107,161,712. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,370,805 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,587,535,000 after purchasing an additional 94,527 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,317,516 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,464,391,000 after purchasing an additional 258,151 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,896,815 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,343,683,000 after purchasing an additional 234,436 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,193,063 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $879,338,000 after purchasing an additional 243,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 1,510.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,008,516 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $553,125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,883,769 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

Seagate Technology NASDAQ: STX is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage products and systems. The firm's product portfolio includes traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), hybrid storage devices and integrated storage systems aimed at enterprise, cloud, OEM and consumer markets. Seagate also provides services that support its hardware offerings, including data recovery and storage management solutions.

Seagate's products are used in a wide array of applications, from large-scale data centers and cloud infrastructure to desktop and portable consumer devices.

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