Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) shares gapped up before the market opened on Thursday after Zacks Research upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The stock had previously closed at $764.43, but opened at $878.91. Seagate Technology shares last traded at $881.6110, with a volume of 1,447,010 shares traded.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on STX. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $1,100.00 to $1,180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $515.00 to $545.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $1,000.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $1,035.00 to $1,187.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $970.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 989 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $880.19, for a total transaction of $870,507.91. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 4,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,776,015.10. This represents a 18.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 903 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $880.19, for a total transaction of $794,811.57. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 42,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,724,943.40. This represents a 2.06% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 151,069 shares of company stock valued at $126,191,753. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Seagate Technology News

Here are the key news stories impacting Seagate Technology this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Fiscal Q4 beat expectations: Seagate reported adjusted EPS of $5.71 versus the $5.10 consensus, while revenue rose 48.5% year over year to $3.63 billion, exceeding the $3.50 billion estimate. The company also reported record profitability and generated $3.1 billion in fiscal-year free cash flow. Seagate fiscal fourth-quarter and fiscal-year results
• Positive Sentiment: Stronger-than-expected guidance: Seagate forecast fiscal Q1 2027 EPS of $7.10–$7.50 and revenue of $4.0–$4.2 billion, well above Wall Street estimates of $5.63 EPS and $3.7 billion in revenue. Management cited robust AI-driven demand for high-capacity data-center storage. Seagate upbeat forecast
• Positive Sentiment: AI and HAMR momentum: Continued cloud and data-center demand, together with Seagate’s Mozaic and heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technologies, is supporting higher drive capacity, pricing power, margin expansion, and operating leverage. One bullish analyst raised a price target from $1,410 to $1,624, citing faster-than-expected HAMR adoption and an improving balance sheet. Seagate HAMR analysis
• Positive Sentiment: Broad analyst support: JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Cantor Fitzgerald, Rosenblatt, TD Cowen, and Wedbush raised targets or reaffirmed positive ratings. Zacks also upgraded STX from “hold” to “strong-buy.”
• Neutral Sentiment: Seagate declared a quarterly dividend of $0.74 per share, payable October 7 to shareholders of record September 24, implying an annualized yield of roughly 0.4%.
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and expectations remain risks: the stock has already rallied sharply, and some commentary warns that substantial AI growth may be priced in. A high P/E and elevated leverage could amplify volatility if demand, pricing, or HAMR execution disappoints.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 168.0% in the 1st quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 7,177 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $610,000 after acquiring an additional 4,499 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Seagate Technology during the second quarter valued at $262,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 25.8% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 36,682 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,294,000 after purchasing an additional 7,517 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 64.8% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 8,543 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 3,358 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.4% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 127,887 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $18,458,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 15.1%

The firm has a market cap of $197.31 billion, a PE ratio of 63.45 and a beta of 2.04. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $895.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $622.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.16, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The data storage provider reported $5.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.10 by $0.61. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 26.11% and a return on equity of 680.78%. The firm had revenue of $3.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.50 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.59 EPS. Seagate Technology’s quarterly revenue was up 48.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Seagate Technology has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 7.100-7.500 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 26.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 24th will be paid a $0.74 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 24th. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is currently 21.33%.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage products and systems. The firm’s product portfolio includes traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), hybrid storage devices and integrated storage systems aimed at enterprise, cloud, OEM and consumer markets. Seagate also provides services that support its hardware offerings, including data recovery and storage management solutions.

Seagate’s products are used in a wide array of applications, from large-scale data centers and cloud infrastructure to desktop and portable consumer devices.