Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Buy” Rating

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Thursday.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America dropped their target price on Seagate Technology from $130.00 to $112.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Seagate Technology from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, May 16th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $116.21.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ:STX opened at $108.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.90 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.66. Seagate Technology has a 1 year low of $63.19 and a 1 year high of $115.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 63.48% and a net margin of 14.67%. Seagate Technology’s revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 25th. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is 41.62%.

Seagate Technology announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 22nd that authorizes the company to buyback $5.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to reacquire up to 21.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,012 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $519,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Seagate Technology by 95.4% during the 4th quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,507 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 1,712 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Seagate Technology by 37.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in Seagate Technology by 46.9% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,266 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after buying an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 11,122 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $960,000 after acquiring an additional 388 shares in the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Seagate Technology

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.