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Investing.com - Bernstein SocGen Group raised its price target on Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) to $275.00 from $250.00 on Friday, maintaining an Outperform rating on the hard drive manufacturer. The stock, currently trading at $226.41, has delivered an impressive 173.74% return over the past six months. According to InvestingPro data, six analysts have recently revised their earnings estimates upward, with price targets ranging from $80 to $350.
The firm cited accelerating data storage demand as a key driver for Seagate’s growth potential, noting that total storage capacity shipped for NAND and HDDs grew at a 55% CAGR from 1998-2013 before moderating to 14% from 2013-2024.
Bernstein expects storage demand growth to re-accelerate to 19% from 2024-2030, with data center storage growing at 23% compared to on-device storage at 10%, driven by richer content creation, longer retention requirements, stricter data sovereignty rules, and artificial intelligence applications.
While Bernstein believes both Seagate and Western Digital will benefit from strong hard drive demand and improved industry structure as a duopoly, the firm favors Seagate due to its stronger position in HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology.
This technological advantage should drive gross margin improvements and market share gains for Seagate relative to Western Digital, justifying Seagate’s premium valuation, according to the research firm.
In other recent news, Seagate Technology has seen several positive developments. Rosenblatt increased its price target for Seagate to $250, maintaining a Buy rating, citing growing demand for hard disk drives amid expanding AI data center projects. Mizuho also raised its price target for Seagate to $245, highlighting strong demand for Seagate’s Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology driven by AI applications. Bernstein SocGen Group initiated coverage of Seagate with an Outperform rating and a price target of $250, noting the company’s leadership in HAMR technology and favorable market conditions.
Additionally, Seagate announced a significant £100 million investment in Northern Ireland to advance nanophotonic innovations for next-generation hard drives, supported by an additional £15 million from Invest NI. This investment is part of a five-year research and development project aimed at strengthening the regional economy and meeting global storage demands. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley named Western Digital as its top pick in the storage sector, replacing Seagate, and raised Western Digital’s price target to $99. These recent developments reflect strong interest and activity surrounding Seagate Technology and its market position.
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