Susquehanna Upgrades Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) to Neutral

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) was upgraded by research analysts at Susquehanna from a “negative” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $280.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $150.00. Susquehanna’s price target would indicate a potential downside of 12.59% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $270.00 to $337.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $290.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 9th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $235.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $240.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $320.39.

Seagate Technology Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of STX stock opened at $320.32 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $282.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $221.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.41 billion, a PE ratio of 41.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.60. Seagate Technology has a 52-week low of $63.19 and a 52-week high of $332.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Seagate Technology news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.56, for a total value of $5,711,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 429,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,760,816.20. This represents a 4.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 54,021 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.16, for a total value of $15,404,628.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 56,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,052,511.88. This represents a 48.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 132,557 shares of company stock worth $36,847,793. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STX. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new stake in Seagate Technology in the second quarter worth $173,000. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the third quarter worth about $1,864,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 18.0% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 18,422 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,632,000 after acquiring an additional 2,808 shares during the period. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 185.8% in the 2nd quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd now owns 18,734 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,704,000 after acquiring an additional 12,178 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Seagate Technology in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,542,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Seagate Technology

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage products and systems. The firm’s product portfolio includes traditional hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), hybrid storage devices and integrated storage systems aimed at enterprise, cloud, OEM and consumer markets. Seagate also provides services that support its hardware offerings, including data recovery and storage management solutions.

Seagate’s products are used in a wide array of applications, from large-scale data centers and cloud infrastructure to desktop and portable consumer devices.