NEW YORK, Feb 4, 2026, 13:05 EST — Regular session
- Seagate shares dropped roughly 9% by midday after an early rally
- According to SEC Form 4, CEO William Mosley offloaded 20,000 shares on Feb. 2, doing so through a 10b5-1 trading plan
- Storage and chip stocks fall alongside the Nasdaq as tech investors grow wary once more
Shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc dropped 9.4% to $402.82 by midday Wednesday, hitting a low of $402.31 during the session. The stock had opened at $442 and climbed as high as $453.17 earlier in the day.
The shift hit as U.S. tech shares slid, with investors rattled by fresh concerns over the rapid impact of AI tools on the software sector. The Nasdaq dropped roughly 1%, the S&P 500 slipped about 0.2%, while the Dow climbed around 0.8%, Reuters reported.
Seagate’s stock has been lingering close to its 52-week high — the peak level in the past year — driven by a surge linked to AI-related storage needs. It closed Tuesday at $444.45, roughly 3% below the January 29 high of $457.84, MarketWatch reports.
Other storage and data-center stocks took a hit as well. Western Digital plunged 12.3%, Micron slid 12.7%, and Pure Storage dipped roughly 4%. NetApp, however, bucked the trend, climbing 2.8%.
A fresh detail caught traders’ attention in a regulatory filing. CEO William D. Mosley sold 20,000 ordinary shares on Feb. 2, according to a Form 4 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares went for prices between $401.10 and $434.3067. These sales were made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which is a pre-arranged trading strategy designed to avoid insider trading risks. After offloading those shares, Mosley still held 410,056 shares.
Seagate’s rally in late January came after it posted results that outpaced Wall Street forecasts, driven by increased spending on data centers and storage. The company projected third-quarter revenue of $2.90 billion, with a $100 million margin, and adjusted earnings per share around $3.40, plus or minus 20 cents—numbers that topped estimates gathered by LSEG, Reuters noted. CEO Dave Mosley highlighted that AI-related data growth is pushing data centers to seek storage solutions offering “performance and cost-efficiency at exabyte-scale.” Reuters
The broader “AI memory” trade has been crowded, swinging sharply both ways. Business Insider referenced IDC’s warning of an “unprecedented memory chip shortage,” alongside bullish outlooks from William Blair and Mizuho on memory and storage stocks like Seagate. Business Insider
But the risks are obvious. If data-center clients pull back on orders or supply tightens and prices fall, those AI-driven stocks that surged could reverse sharply. Wednesday’s action proved the market has little tolerance when tech mood shifts.
Seagate shareholders have a key date to note: the board announced a $0.74 quarterly dividend, scheduled for payment on April 8, 2026. The dividend will go to those on record by March 25, 2026.
