Morgan Stanley Cuts Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Price Target to $129.00

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price objective cut by Morgan Stanley from $133.00 to $129.00 in a report issued on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on STX. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on Seagate Technology from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their price target on Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Seagate Technology from $112.00 to $99.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Seagate Technology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.56.

Seagate Technology Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of STX stock opened at $108.42 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82 and a beta of 1.06. Seagate Technology has a 12-month low of $82.31 and a 12-month high of $115.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $94.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.33.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.28. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 14.67% and a negative return on equity of 58.59%. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.34) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 7.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.66%. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is currently 52.65%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.82, for a total value of $76,365.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,555 shares in the company, valued at $667,430.10. This represents a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.53, for a total transaction of $1,990,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 642,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,947,726.41. This represents a 3.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,073 shares of company stock valued at $5,106,149 over the last ninety days. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,560 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $281,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the period. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 1.5% in the third quarter. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC now owns 6,620 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $725,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Berkshire Bank boosted its position in Seagate Technology by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Berkshire Bank now owns 4,118 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. My Legacy Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. My Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 3,113 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $294,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 3,377 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. 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.