Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Upgraded to Hold at BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Free Report) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on STX. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $133.00 to $129.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "negative" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Bank of America dropped 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 report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $140.00 price target (down previously from $150.00) on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $116.21.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

STX traded down $2.07 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $106.97. 3,404,138 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,925,765. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $85.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.52. The company has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.56 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.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 14.67% and a negative return on equity of 63.48%. Seagate Technology's quarterly revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. Seagate Technology's payout ratio is presently 41.62%.

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 stock was sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total value of $1,691,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,988,047.12. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of STX. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 56.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,621,162 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,348,262,000 after purchasing an additional 5,640,443 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 2,161,191 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,974,117 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,414,446,000 after purchasing an additional 1,814,821 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 3,339.4% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 933,996 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $79,343,000 after purchasing an additional 906,840 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter worth approximately $77,341,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by 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.