Seagate Technology Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:STX)

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors bought 16,121 put options on the company. This is an increase of 189% compared to the typical volume of 5,586 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Seagate Technology by 56.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,621,162 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,348,262,000 after acquiring an additional 5,640,443 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Seagate Technology by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,974,117 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,414,446,000 after buying an additional 1,814,821 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Seagate Technology during the 3rd quarter worth $133,031,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 341.7% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,308,958 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $143,370,000 after buying an additional 1,012,638 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the fourth quarter worth about $77,341,000. 92.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on STX shares. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "negative" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Bank of America cut their price target on Seagate Technology from $130.00 to $112.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Seagate Technology from $133.00 to $129.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Northland Securities reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $160.00 price objective (up from $144.00) on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $130.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $121.00.

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Seagate Technology Stock Up 0.6 %

STX traded up $0.52 on Monday, reaching $88.79. 1,714,938 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,588,978. Seagate Technology has a one year low of $82.31 and a one year high of $115.32. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $96.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $98.76. The company has a market cap of $18.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.23 and a beta of 1.01.

Seagate Technology Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.72 per share. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 19th. Seagate Technology's payout ratio is currently 52.65%.

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.