New York—May 8, 2026, 19:05 EDT
- Seagate finished Friday up 2.11% at $782.64, barely budging in after-hours trading. The stock remains close to its recent peak.
- According to fresh SEC filings, Seagate’s Chief Financial Officer Gianluca Romano unloaded roughly $18.9 million in company stock across May 6 and May 7. The transactions were executed under a pre-set Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
- The stock is still riding the broader AI-storage wave; just last month, Seagate projected both revenue and profit ahead of analyst forecasts, lifted by strong appetite for data-storage gear.
Seagate Technology Holdings plc gained again Friday, building on a strong AI-fueled rally. Meanwhile, new regulatory filings revealed the company’s finance chief offloaded almost $19 million in shares across two days, part of a preset trading plan.
Seagate shares settled at $782.64, a gain of 2.11%, with a slight dip to $782.40 showing up in after-hours action as of 7:05 p.m. EDT, market data showed. That leaves the hard-drive maker hovering near the highs of a rally that’s pushed it into the AI infrastructure spotlight.
Timing is key here, with investors still working to figure out just how long the high-capacity storage shortage might persist. Hard disk drives—HDDs—remain a mainstay for cloud data centers, valued for packing in a lot of storage at a lower price point than much of the flash competition.
Romano unloaded 22,488 shares on May 6, spread over several trades, according to an SEC Form 4. By the end of the day, he held 42,847 shares. The filing noted those sales were made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan set up back on Nov. 26, 2025. Such plans let insiders lock in trade schedules ahead of time.
Romano offloaded an additional 1,902 shares at $770 apiece on May 7, a separate filing shows, bringing his remaining stake to 40,945 shares. This sale, too, fell under the same Rule 10b5-1 plan.
The filing doesn’t specify Romano’s reason for selling. Insider sales set up in advance are typical after a big run-up in shares, though such moves often get noticed when the stock has already blasted past most analysts’ price targets.
Seagate underperformed on Friday, even as its trading volume surpassed the 50-day average, according to MarketWatch. Western Digital jumped 3.47% to $480 and NetApp climbed 4.42% to $118, both outpacing Seagate’s move.
Seagate’s forecast on April 28 lit the rally. The company called for fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.45 billion, give or take $100 million—topping analyst consensus of $3.16 billion. Adjusted earnings per share are seen at $5, plus or minus 20 cents, beating the $3.97 analysts had penciled in, according to Reuters and LSEG data.
Seagate CEO Dave Mosley pointed to AI-driven data growth and steady storage demand in the latest earnings release. For its fiscal third quarter, Seagate posted revenue of $3.11 billion. GAAP diluted EPS landed at $3.27, while non-GAAP diluted EPS came in at $4.10.
Analyst opinion remains divided: some see robust demand, others point to stretched valuations at current levels. StockAnalysis.com lists 21 analysts calling it a “Buy,” yet the average price target sits at $610.10—lower than where shares finished Friday. Targets are all over the map, from $545 at UBS to $1,000 at Cantor Fitzgerald and Rosenblatt. StockAnalysis
Barclays’ Tom O’Malley bumped his price target up to $750 from $625 on April 30, sticking with a buy rating, StockAnalysis.com reports. TD Cowen’s Krish Sankar lifted his target to $850 a day earlier, while Matt Bryson at Wedbush went to $825, according to the same data.
There’s not much of a safety net if this trade slips. Should cloud clients hold back on purchases, or if supply ramps up quicker than anticipated, or cheaper storage options start eating away at HDD demand, the shortage narrative that’s buoyed Seagate may quickly become a liability.
Seagate said this week that Michael R. Cannon, who’s currently the lead independent director, plans to step down from the board when his term wraps up in October 2026. Cannon joined the board back in February 2011. He’s held the lead independent director role for five years, after also serving five years as board chair.
