Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock Rating Upgraded by BNP Paribas

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) was upgraded by research analysts at BNP Paribas from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on STX. Benchmark upgraded Seagate Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Northland Securities reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $160.00 price target (up from $144.00) on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on Seagate Technology from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “negative” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.11.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

Shares of Seagate Technology stock opened at $107.79 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.71 and a beta of 1.32. Seagate Technology has a 52-week low of $63.19 and a 52-week high of $115.32. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.40.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.56, for a total value of $1,691,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 555,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,988,047.12. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MBB Public Markets I LLC bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the first quarter valued at about $300,000. United Services Automobile Association bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the first quarter valued at about $385,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 6.2% in the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 4,314 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $366,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 77.4% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 17,351 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 7,569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panoramic Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Seagate Technology by 591.8% in the first quarter. Panoramic Capital LLC now owns 131,433 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $11,165,000 after acquiring an additional 112,433 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.