ING Groep NV Raises Holdings in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)

ING Groep NV increased its position in shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,785 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,805 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in Seagate Technology were worth $2,167,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its stake in Seagate Technology by 2.0% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 9,663 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,058,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 133.8% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 171,952 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $18,834,000 after acquiring an additional 98,418 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Seagate Technology by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 465,428 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $50,978,000 after purchasing an additional 10,122 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in Seagate Technology during the third quarter valued at about $259,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP grew its stake in Seagate Technology by 42.2% in the third quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 7,617 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $834,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260 shares during the last quarter. 92.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Seagate Technology news, EVP Ban Seng Teh sold 4,872 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $535,920.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,969 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,096,590. This trade represents a 32.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Kian Fatt Chong sold 9,182 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.50, for a total value of $968,701.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 201,820 shares of company stock valued at $21,892,856. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on STX. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Seagate Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Seagate Technology from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Seagate Technology from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $118.83.

Seagate Technology Price Performance

NASDAQ STX opened at $96.79 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $105.02 and a 200 day moving average of $101.34. The company has a market capitalization of $20.47 billion, a PE ratio of 25.27 and a beta of 1.05. Seagate Technology Holdings plc has a 1 year low of $74.33 and a 1 year high of $115.32.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.28. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 32.19% and a net margin of 11.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.34) earnings per share. Seagate Technology’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Seagate Technology Holdings plc will post 7.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Seagate Technology Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 6th. Investors of record on Sunday, December 15th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This is a boost from Seagate Technology’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Seagate Technology’s payout ratio is currently 73.11%.

About Seagate Technology

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.