Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ:STX)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $913.36, but opened at $879.21. Seagate Technology shares last traded at $867.9510, with a volume of 948,345 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane upped their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $530.00 to $860.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $1,000.00 to $1,150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Rosenblatt Securities upped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $500.00 to $1,000.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $775.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Twenty-two 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, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $898.52.

Seagate Technology Trading Down 3.8%

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $892.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $608.50. The company has a market cap of $197.06 billion, a PE ratio of 82.96 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.16.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The data storage provider reported $4.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.51 by $0.59. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 21.60% and a return on equity of 1,005.65%. The company had revenue of $3.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.96 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 44.1% on a year-over-year basis. Seagate Technology has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 4.800-5.200 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC will post 14.14 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 24th were given a dividend of $0.74 per share. This represents a $2.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 24th. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is 28.08%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 22,488 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $774.22, for a total value of $17,410,659.36. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 42,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,173,004.34. This represents a 34.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP John Christopher Morris sold 5,626 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $738.37, for a total value of $4,154,069.62. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 11,954 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,826,474.98. This represents a 32.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 151,069 shares of company stock worth $126,191,753. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,370,805 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,587,535,000 after purchasing an additional 94,527 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,317,516 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,464,391,000 after purchasing an additional 258,151 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Seagate Technology by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,896,815 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,343,683,000 after purchasing an additional 234,436 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,193,063 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $879,338,000 after buying an additional 243,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 1,510.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,008,516 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $553,125,000 after buying an additional 1,883,769 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Seagate Technology Company Profile

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.