Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price target lifted by Bank of America from $145.00 to $165.00 in a research report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on STX. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $140.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, May 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Thursday, July 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $99.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $140.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.00.

Seagate Technology Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of STX opened at $149.08 on Monday. Seagate Technology has a 12 month low of $63.19 and a 12 month high of $152.16. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $124.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.54 and a beta of 1.45.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.75 by $0.15. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 17.49% and a negative return on equity of 105.02%. The business had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 30.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 25th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.62%.

Seagate Technology announced that its board has initiated 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 often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Seagate Technology

In related news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.00, for a total transaction of $77,870.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 10,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,342,770. This trade represents a 5.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Stephanie Tilenius sold 2,693 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.04, for a total transaction of $344,811.72. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,567,721.76. This represents a 18.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 393,791 shares of company stock worth $47,582,998. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 56.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,621,162 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,348,262,000 after buying an additional 5,640,443 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 18,920,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,607,321,000 after buying an additional 2,161,191 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,974,117 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,414,446,000 after buying an additional 1,814,821 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Seagate Technology by 3,339.4% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 933,996 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $79,343,000 after buying an additional 906,840 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the 4th quarter valued at about $77,341,000. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

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.