Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the nineteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $118.83.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $125.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ STX opened at $86.31 on Thursday. Seagate Technology has a 12 month low of $79.39 and a 12 month high of $115.32. The stock has a market cap of $18.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.54 and a beta of 1.03. The company’s 50 day moving average is $97.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.42.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 11.34% and a negative return on equity of 32.19%. The firm’s revenue was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.34) EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Seagate Technology will post 7.18 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 6th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. This is a positive change from Seagate Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is presently 75.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.53, for a total transaction of $1,990,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 642,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,947,726.41. The trade was a 3.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 1,131 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.90, for a total transaction of $126,558.90. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $804,672.90. This represents a 13.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 55,304 shares of company stock valued at $5,656,238 over the last three months. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in STX. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the third quarter valued at $133,031,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 341.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,308,958 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $143,370,000 after acquiring an additional 1,012,638 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 6.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,502,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $937,081,000 after acquiring an additional 541,585 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 29.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,778,811 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $197,844,000 after acquiring an additional 405,232 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology in the second quarter valued at about $35,349,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.