The Goldman Sachs Group Has Lowered Expectations for Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Price

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price objective trimmed by The Goldman Sachs Group from $112.00 to $99.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

STX has been the topic of several other reports. Northland Securities increased their target price on Seagate Technology from $142.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities lifted their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $118.39.

Seagate Technology Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of STX stock opened at $88.87 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.20 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $95.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.77. Seagate Technology has a twelve month low of $79.39 and a twelve month high of $115.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. Seagate Technology had a net margin of 11.34% and a negative return on equity of 32.19%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.34) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Seagate Technology will post 7.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 6th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, December 15th were given a $0.72 dividend. This is a boost from Seagate Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 75.20%.

Insider Transactions at Seagate Technology

In related news, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 1,131 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.90, for a total value of $126,558.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,191 shares in the company, valued at approximately $804,672.90. This trade represents a 13.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Yolanda Lee Conyers sold 750 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,555 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $667,430.10. This trade represents a 10.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 55,304 shares of company stock valued at $5,656,238. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of STX. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 73,534 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,594,000 after purchasing an additional 2,570 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 24,870.8% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 17,979 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,853,000 after buying an additional 17,907 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 15.5% in the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 7,342 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $752,000 after buying an additional 985 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 0.8% during the second quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 78,252 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $8,081,000 after acquiring an additional 623 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 19.0% during the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 27,686 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,859,000 after acquiring an additional 4,419 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

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.