Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Price

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) had its target price lifted by Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $167.00 in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the data storage provider's stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Seagate Technology from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $145.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Seagate Technology from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $128.00.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ STX traded up $1.90 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $149.08. 2,855,587 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,999,345. The stock has a market cap of $31.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.54 and a beta of 1.45. Seagate Technology has a one year low of $63.19 and a one year high of $152.15. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $124.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.44.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 105.02% and a net margin of 17.49%. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th were issued a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio is currently 41.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Seagate Technology news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 26,816 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.58, for a total transaction of $3,153,025.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 38,082 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,477,681.56. This represents a 41.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Michael R. Cannon sold 24,190 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,835 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,289,365. This trade represents a 69.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 393,791 shares of company stock worth $47,582,998 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 133.1% during the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 12,681 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,094,000 after acquiring an additional 7,240 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank grew its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 29,964 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,545,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 10.2% in the first quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 278,831 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $23,687,000 after purchasing an additional 25,817 shares during the period. Personal CFO Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology in the first quarter worth $223,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter valued at $25,729,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Seagate Technology

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.