Bank of America Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) Stock

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) had its price target upped by analysts at Bank of America from $145.00 to $165.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 10.70% from the stock’s previous close.

STX has been the subject of several other research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Friday, May 23rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Seagate Technology from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $128.00.

Seagate Technology Stock Down 0.0%

NASDAQ:STX opened at $149.05 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.54 and a beta of 1.45. Seagate Technology has a 52 week low of $63.19 and a 52 week high of $152.16. The company has a fifty day moving average of $126.27 and a 200 day moving average of $102.20.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 17.49% and a negative return on equity of 105.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Seagate Technology will post 6.83 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 22nd that authorizes the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 21.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Seagate Technology

In related news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 1,725 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.00, for a total value of $248,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 12,052 shares in the company, valued at $1,735,488. The trade was a 12.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephanie Tilenius sold 2,693 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.04, for a total transaction of $344,811.72. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,567,721.76. This trade represents a 18.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 395,516 shares of company stock valued at $47,831,398. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Seagate Technology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STX. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 30.2% during the 2nd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 457 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the second quarter valued at approximately $380,000. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in Seagate Technology by 3.8% during the second quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 3,936 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $568,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the period. Accurate Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Seagate Technology in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $233,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Seagate Technology by 13.6% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 40,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,811,000 after purchasing an additional 4,813 shares during the period. 92.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.