Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX)

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 9,412 call options on the company. This is an increase of 37% compared to the typical daily volume of 6,891 call options.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 5,928 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.99, for a total value of $592,740.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,218,378.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Seagate Technology news, CFO Gianluca Romano sold 25,760 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.54, for a total value of $2,435,350.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 52,620 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,974,694.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP John Christopher Morris sold 5,928 shares of Seagate Technology stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.99, for a total value of $592,740.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,185 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,218,378.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 72,547 shares of company stock valued at $7,084,361 over the last ninety days. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Seagate Technology

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Seagate Technology during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Northwest Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Seagate Technology by 2,407.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 351 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Seagate Technology during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Seagate Technology Trading Up 2.4 %

NASDAQ:STX traded up $2.35 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $99.13. 1,799,999 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,577,652. Seagate Technology has a fifty-two week low of $62.43 and a fifty-two week high of $113.57. The company has a market capitalization of $20.84 billion, a PE ratio of -75.02 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $101.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.60.

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. Seagate Technology had a negative return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 5.11%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.29) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Seagate Technology will post 6.72 EPS for the current year.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 7th. Investors of record on Monday, September 23rd will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 23rd. Seagate Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently -217.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

STX has been the topic of several research reports. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Seagate Technology in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Loop Capital upped their target price on Seagate Technology from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Wedbush upped their price objective on Seagate Technology from $100.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Seagate Technology from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $115.94.

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.