Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Gap Up After Dividend Announcement

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after the company announced a dividend. The stock had previously closed at $101.25, but opened at $108.63. Seagate Technology shares last traded at $110.40, with a volume of 2,573,553 shares.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on STX shares. Summit Insights upgraded Seagate Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $124.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.56.

Seagate Technology Trading Up 6.8 %

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.33. The stock has a market cap of $22.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.25 and a beta of 1.06.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.28. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 32.19% and a net margin of 11.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.34) EPS. Seagate Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 7.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Seagate Technology

In related news, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 9,182 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total value of $968,701.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.82, for a total value of $76,365.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $667,430.10. This trade represents a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,073 shares of company stock worth $5,106,149 in the last 90 days. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in STX. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Seagate Technology by 133.8% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 171,952 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $18,834,000 after acquiring an additional 98,418 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP bought a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,146,000. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 2nd quarter valued at $499,000. Forte Capital LLC ADV raised its stake in Seagate Technology by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV now owns 28,972 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,173,000 after acquiring an additional 6,653 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Seagate Technology by 3,549.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 204,493 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $22,398,000 after acquiring an additional 198,890 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

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.