Lazard Asset Management LLC Acquires 6,596 Shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)

Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 60,138 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,596 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Seagate Technology were worth $5,189,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Seagate Technology by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 532 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Human Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter worth $48,000. Mizuho Bank Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 140.0% in the 4th quarter. Mizuho Bank Ltd. now owns 600 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 350 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 22.7% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 606 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, S.A. Mason LLC acquired a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter worth $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on STX. Citigroup decreased their target price on Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $105.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Northland Securities reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $160.00 price target (up previously from $144.00) on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Benchmark upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. One research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $114.89.

Seagate Technology Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of NASDAQ STX opened at $107.43 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.64 and a beta of 1.32. Seagate Technology Holdings plc has a 12 month low of $63.19 and a 12 month high of $115.32. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $84.15 and a 200-day moving average of $92.41.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 EPS 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 6.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 25th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is currently 41.62%.

Insider Activity 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, April 1st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. The trade was a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.