Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $99.00 to $140.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "overweight" rating on the data storage provider's stock. Morgan Stanley's price objective suggests a potential upside of 25.25% from the stock's previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Friday. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $130.00 to $112.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $105.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $116.79.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

STX traded up $2.91 on Friday, reaching $111.77. The company had a trading volume of 1,707,300 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,952,774. The stock has a market cap of $23.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37 and a beta of 1.32. Seagate Technology has a fifty-two week low of $63.19 and a fifty-two week high of $115.32. The company's fifty day moving average is $86.13 and its 200 day moving average is $92.66.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 revenue for the quarter was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 EPS for the current year.

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

Insider Activity at Seagate Technology

In related news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,012 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $519,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Seagate Technology by 37.6% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 852 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,266 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 11,122 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $960,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,310 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,986,000 after buying an additional 3,576 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company's stock.

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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