Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Sets New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $116.41 and last traded at $116.03, with a volume of 1578657 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $112.74.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on STX. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Friday. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Seagate Technology from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Seagate Technology from $99.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $118.37.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 3.9%

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $92.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.87 billion, a PE ratio of 21.39 and a beta of 1.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 63.48% and a net margin of 14.67%. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 25th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.62%.

Seagate Technology declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 22nd that allows the company to buyback $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the data storage provider to reacquire up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Seagate Technology

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 555,677 shares in the company, valued at $46,988,047.12. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 6,410 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.26, for a total value of $713,176.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 106,856 shares of company stock worth $11,202,861 over the last quarter. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in STX. Capital Research Global Investors boosted 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 worth $1,348,262,000 after purchasing an additional 5,640,443 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 12.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 18,920,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,607,321,000 after purchasing an additional 2,161,191 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,974,117 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,414,446,000 after buying an additional 1,814,821 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 3,339.4% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 933,996 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $79,343,000 after buying an additional 906,840 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in Seagate Technology in the 4th quarter worth about $77,341,000. 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.