New York, February 4, 2026, 19:06 EST — After-hours
- Seagate shares fell 5.81%, closing at $418.63 and snapping a two-day winning streak
- CEO William D. Mosley revealed he sold 20,000 shares as part of a pre-arranged trading plan
- Cantor Fitzgerald raised its price target to $650, shifting attention to Seagate’s dividend record date in March
Seagate Technology Holdings plc shares dropped 5.8% to $418.63 on Wednesday, snapping a two-day streak and putting the stock roughly 9% below its 52-week peak of $459.41 set just a day earlier. Volume surged to 6.6 million shares, outpacing its 50-day average. In the storage sector, Western Digital slid 7.2%, while NetApp climbed 5.3%. The Dow rose 0.5%, but the S&P 500 dipped 0.5%. (MarketWatch)
The drop hit hard since Seagate is seen as a high-beta stand-in for data-center investments linked to artificial intelligence. After its recent surge to new highs, the stock reacts sharply to even the smallest profit-taking moves.
Here, investors are tracking positioning just as closely as the fundamentals. Seagate’s narrative hinges on limited supply and strict pricing discipline for high-capacity hard disk drives favored by cloud clients. When Seagate’s shares stumble, the entire storage sector feels the ripple.
A filing revealed that CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 ordinary shares on Feb. 2, with prices ranging between roughly $401 and $434. These sales took place under a Rule 10b5-1 plan set up in February 2025, the filing noted. Such a 10b5-1 plan lets executives trade shares on a fixed schedule, rather than choosing when to sell each time. (SEC)
On Wednesday, Cantor Fitzgerald bumped up its price target for Seagate to $650 from $500 while holding an “overweight” rating, MT Newswires reported. BNP Paribas also lifted its price target, this time to $530 from $430, and stayed firm on its “outperform” call, according to MT Newswires. (MarketScreener)
Seagate has kept its tone positive since releasing its latest results. The company posted fiscal Q2 revenue of $2.83 billion and adjusted EPS of $3.11. For the March quarter, it expects revenue around $2.90 billion, with a $100 million margin either way, and adjusted EPS near $3.40, plus or minus $0.20. Mosley said the quarter “exceeded our expectations,” highlighting record margins and the “ongoing ramp” of its HAMR-based Mozaic products. (Seagate Investors)
Analysts are pointing to those figures as clear signs that AI workloads are boosting demand for high-capacity storage. Seagate’s revenue and profit guidance exceeded Wall Street’s forecasts, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. (Reuters)
HAMR — heat-assisted magnetic recording — is Seagate’s strategy to cram more data onto each disk. This tech shift is a key factor behind investors viewing the stock less as a traditional hardware player and more like a contender in the AI supply chain.
The downside risk is clear. If cloud clients delay orders or rivals ramp up capacity faster than anticipated, storage prices could drop sharply — and a stock with this much momentum often reacts immediately, then sorts things out afterward.
Investors are watching Thursday’s session closely to see if shares hold steady or continue slipping after hitting new highs. Attention also turns to the dividend calendar. Seagate’s next dividend carries a March 25 record date and is set to pay out on April 8, per the company’s dividend history page. (Seagate Investors)
