Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Price Down 7.5% Following Analyst Downgrade

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX) shares fell 7.5% during trading on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $1,180.00 to $865.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Seagate Technology traded as low as $636.36 and last traded at $639.01. Approximately 6,069,463 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 38% from the average session volume of 4,402,482 shares. The stock had previously closed at $690.81.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on STX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $1,095.00 to $1,240.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Seagate Technology from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, September 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,350.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Bank of America upped their target price 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, Susquehanna increased their target price on Seagate Technology from $775.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Twenty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $973.40.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 49,984 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $772.16, for a total transaction of $38,595,645.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 70,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,634,952.96. This trade represents a 41.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, EVP John Morris sold 9,354 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $877.91, for a total transaction of $8,211,970.14. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 22,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,922,411.63. This trade represents a 29.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 466,959 shares of company stock worth $378,840,741. Company insiders own 0.51% of the company’s stock.

More Seagate Technology News

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

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo maintained an “overweight” rating on Seagate while lowering its price target from $1,180 to $865. The revised target still implies approximately 35% upside from the referenced share price, suggesting the firm believes the selloff has been “well overdone.” Seagate and Western Digital Stocks Have Tanked on Toshiba Fears. Wells Fargo Is Still Bullish.
• Positive Sentiment: Seagate’s 44-terabyte Mozaic 4 drives could support further gross-margin expansion through higher storage density, improved cost efficiency and strong cloud-storage demand. The technology strengthens the company’s profitability outlook if adoption continues. Can Seagate’s 44TB Mozaic 4 Drives Lift Gross Margins Further?
• Positive Sentiment: A separate analysis argues that Seagate’s underlying business trends remain favorable, with data-storage demand expected to benefit from expanding cloud infrastructure and artificial-intelligence workloads. Seagate Could Have a Long Runway as Data Storage Demand Explodes

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STX. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 2,655.9% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,414,136 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,329,641,000 after acquiring an additional 2,326,538 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its position in Seagate Technology by 0.8% in the second quarter. National Pension Service now owns 834,705 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $805,490,000 after purchasing an additional 6,944 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in Seagate Technology by 3,872.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 967,528 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $378,985,000 after purchasing an additional 943,170 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 32.2% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 965,565 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $378,267,000 after purchasing an additional 235,359 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 67.6% in the 1st quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 709,160 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $277,821,000 after purchasing an additional 285,949 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $145.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.04 and a beta of 2.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $845.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $802.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.67.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The data storage provider reported $5.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.10 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $3.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.50 billion. Seagate Technology had a return on equity of 369.98% and a net margin of 26.11%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 48.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.59 EPS. Seagate Technology has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 7.100-7.500 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 35.70 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 24th were issued a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 24th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.33%.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

Seagate Technology Holdings plc is a data storage technology company that designs, manufactures and supplies solutions for storing, managing and accessing digital information. Its product portfolio is centered on hard disk drives (HDDs), including high-capacity drives used in cloud data centers, enterprise environments, surveillance systems, network-attached storage and personal computing.

The company also offers solid-state drives (SSDs), storage systems, external storage products and related services.