Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX)

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 16,121 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 189% compared to the average daily volume of 5,586 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

STX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Seagate Technology from $125.00 to $115.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Seagate Technology in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “negative” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Seagate Technology from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating 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 for the company in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Seagate Technology has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $121.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriflex Group Inc. bought a new position in Seagate Technology in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Elequin Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Fourth Dimension Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Seagate Technology during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 177.9% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 403 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Seagate Technology by 27.0% during the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 532 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.87% of the company’s stock.

Seagate Technology Stock Performance

Shares of Seagate Technology stock opened at $88.27 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.14 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a fifty day moving average of $96.32 and a 200 day moving average of $98.76. Seagate Technology has a fifty-two week low of $82.31 and a fifty-two week high of $115.32.

Seagate Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 19th will be issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 19th. Seagate Technology’s dividend 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.