Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Upgraded at Benchmark

Benchmark upgraded shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $120.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Seagate Technology from $112.00 to $99.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Northland Securities reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 target price (up from $144.00) on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.56.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ STX opened at $108.19 on Wednesday. Seagate Technology has a 12 month low of $82.31 and a 12 month high of $115.32. The stock has a market cap of $22.89 billion, a PE ratio of 19.78 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $95.00 and its 200 day moving average is $100.42.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 14.67% and a negative return on equity of 63.48%. Seagate Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.34) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Seagate Technology will post 6.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 19th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.65%.

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 Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.53, for a total value of $1,990,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 642,497 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,947,726.41. This represents a 3.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.82, for a total transaction of $76,365.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $667,430.10. The trade was a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,073 shares of company stock valued at $5,106,149 in the last quarter. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rheos Capital Works Inc. increased its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 331,500 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,612,000 after buying an additional 8,000 shares during the period. S.A. Mason LLC purchased a new position in Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $55,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 110.7% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 948 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 612.8% in the 4th quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 88,467 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,636,000 after purchasing an additional 76,056 shares during the period. Finally, Spire Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 2,430 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $210,000 after purchasing an additional 129 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.