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

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price target trimmed by Morgan Stanley from $133.00 to $129.00 in a report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on STX. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $125.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Seagate Technology from $112.00 to $99.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $110.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price target on Seagate Technology from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $122.56.

Seagate Technology Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of STX opened at $108.42 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $22.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.82 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $94.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.33. Seagate Technology has a 12 month low of $82.31 and a 12 month high of $115.32.

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

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 19th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.65%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.82, for a total value of $76,365.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,555 shares in the company, valued at approximately $667,430.10. This represents a 10.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 642,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,947,726.41. This trade represents a 3.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,073 shares of company stock valued at $5,106,149 over the last quarter. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of STX. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 0.9% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 16,367,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,792,742,000 after purchasing an additional 150,115 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Seagate Technology by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,502,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $937,081,000 after buying an additional 541,585 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,162,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $454,477,000 after buying an additional 318,416 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Seagate Technology by 29.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,778,811 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $197,844,000 after buying an additional 405,232 shares during the period. Finally, Duquesne Family Office LLC grew its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 22.0% in the second quarter. Duquesne Family Office LLC now owns 1,755,278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $181,268,000 after acquiring an additional 316,295 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

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.