Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Friday.
According to Zacks, “Seagate's fourth-quarter results were disappointing. Both revenues and earnings declined sequentially reflecting intensifying competition in the hard-drive disk (HDD) market. We believe that company's results will continue to suffer due to declining pc shipments as pointed out by market research firms - Gartner and IDC. We note that the company has underperformed the industry on a year-to-date basis. Nevertheless, we believe that new product launches will help Seagate to win enterprise customers on a continuous basis. In this regard, strong demand for hybrid drives also augurs well for the company.”
A number of other brokerages also recently commented on STX. Cowen and Company reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (down from $46.00) on shares of Seagate Technology PLC in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Susquehanna Bancshares Inc reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Seagate Technology PLC in a research report on Wednesday, April 12th. Longbow Research raised shares of Seagate Technology PLC from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $18.42 to $55.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 11th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Seagate Technology PLC in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology PLC in a research report on Friday, June 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twenty-one have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.12.
Seagate Technology PLC (STX) traded down 0.42% during trading on Friday, reaching $33.43. 6,767,992 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. The company has a market cap of $9.76 billion, a PE ratio of 12.96 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.35. Seagate Technology PLC has a 12-month low of $30.09 and a 12-month high of $50.96.
Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The data storage provider reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.34. Seagate Technology PLC had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 81.87%. The firm had revenue of $2.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Seagate Technology PLC will post $3.70 EPS for the current fiscal year.
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In other news, insider Philip G. Brace bought 1,000 shares of Seagate Technology PLC stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was bought at an average price of $33.34 per share, for a total transaction of $33,340.00. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 62,855 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,095,585.70. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Mark Re sold 9,607 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.47, for a total transaction of $417,616.29. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 40,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,759,230.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,456 shares of company stock valued at $715,313 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.
Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology PLC by 3,179.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 18,336,509 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $842,196,000 after buying an additional 17,777,387 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology PLC by 355.8% in the first quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,603,387 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $119,573,000 after buying an additional 2,032,271 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology PLC by 1,387.8% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,292,893 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $59,383,000 after buying an additional 1,205,993 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology PLC by 3.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,119,928 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,429,338,000 after buying an additional 1,132,336 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology PLC by 25.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,206,093 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $147,067,000 after buying an additional 642,845 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.54% of the company’s stock.
About Seagate Technology PLC
Seagate Technology public limited company is a provider of electronic data storage technology and solutions. The Company’s principal products are hard disk drives (HDDs). In addition to HDDs, it produces a range of electronic data storage products, including solid state hybrid drives, solid state drives, peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) cards and serial advanced technology architecture (SATA) controllers.
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