Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Price Down 3.1% – Here’s What Happened

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX)’s stock price fell 3.1% during mid-day trading on Friday. The company traded as low as $507.09 and last traded at $528.29. 4,341,013 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 5% from the average session volume of 4,553,714 shares. The stock had previously closed at $545.14.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on STX. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,350.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $1,000.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, October 28th. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $750.00 to $900.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $1,400.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Seagate Technology currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,000.88.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 3.1%

The firm has a market cap of $121.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.75 and a beta of 2.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $740.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $698.15.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 27th. The data storage provider reported $7.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $7.44 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $4.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.15 billion. Seagate Technology had a return on equity of 252.47% and a net margin of 31.86%. Seagate Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 61.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.61 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 37.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 23rd. This is a positive change from Seagate Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.74. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.97%.

Insider Activity

In other Seagate Technology news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 6,720 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $622.82, for a total value of $4,185,350.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 346,108 shares in the company, valued at $215,562,984.56. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Ban Teh sold 52,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $782.08, for a total transaction of $41,239,078.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 5,810 shares in the company, valued at $4,543,884.80. This represents a 90.08% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 439,747 shares of company stock worth $349,271,735 over the last three months. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Aberdeen Group plc raised its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 1,752.1% in the 3rd quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 3,757,206 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,465,421,000 after purchasing an additional 3,554,342 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew 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 worth $2,329,641,000 after buying an additional 2,326,538 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 3,872.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 967,528 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $378,985,000 after buying an additional 943,170 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 32.2% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 965,565 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $378,267,000 after buying an additional 235,359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 6,944 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

About Seagate Technology

Seagate Technology develops and supplies data-storage products and solutions for businesses and consumers. Its portfolio includes hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives, and storage systems designed for applications ranging from personal computing to large-scale data centers. The company’s products support cloud and enterprise storage, network-attached storage, video surveillance, gaming, and other uses that require digital data to be stored and accessed. Seagate also offers data-management and storage services through its Lyve platform.