Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX)

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 9,533 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 39% compared to the average volume of 6,854 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Seagate Technology news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total transaction of $1,691,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,988,047.12. This trade represents a 3.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Elequin Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Seagate Technology in the first quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 2,200.0% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 460 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

STX stock opened at $90.01 on Friday. Seagate Technology has a 52-week low of $63.19 and a 52-week high of $115.32. The company has a market capitalization of $19.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.46 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $83.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $93.08.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.14 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 63.48% and a net margin of 14.67%. The business’s revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 25th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 25th. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

STX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup reduced their price target on Seagate Technology from $115.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $114.89.

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.