Morgan Stanley Raises Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Price Target to $167.00

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

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on STX. BNP Paribas Exane raised Seagate Technology from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $140.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, UBS Group lifted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $130.00.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of STX stock traded up $0.30 on Monday, hitting $147.42. The stock had a trading volume of 1,487,691 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,244,480. Seagate Technology has a one year low of $63.19 and a one year high of $152.16. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $127.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.51. The company has a market cap of $31.29 billion, a PE ratio of 21.25 and a beta of 1.45.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 17.49% and a negative return on equity of 105.02%. The business had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 22nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th were given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 25th. Seagate Technology's dividend payout ratio is currently 41.62%.

Insider Transactions at Seagate Technology

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.66, for a total transaction of $2,893,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 498,710 shares of the company's stock, valued at $72,143,388.60. The trade was a 3.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 1,725 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.00, for a total transaction of $248,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 12,052 shares in the company, valued at $1,735,488. This trade represents a 12.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 395,516 shares of company stock worth $47,831,398 over the last quarter. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,743,126 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,441,729,000 after purchasing an additional 769,009 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 12.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 18,920,792 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,607,321,000 after buying an additional 2,161,191 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 16,530,152 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,426,717,000 after buying an additional 162,561 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 56.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,621,162 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,348,262,000 after acquiring an additional 5,640,443 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,295,225 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $370,013,000 after acquiring an additional 132,713 shares in the last quarter. 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.