Today I’m reviewing a large-cap data storage firm by the name of Seagate Technology Plc. Its trading ticker symbol is STX.

Seagate Technology PLC is a producer of hard disk drives (HDD) globally. It designs, develops, and manufactures a broad range of hard drives used in desktop PC, notebook PC, game consoles, digital video recorders, and enterprise storage markets.

The company offers external backup storage solutions under the Backup Plus and Expansion product lines, as well as under the Maxtor and LaCie brand names available in capacities up to 120 terabytes. 

It sells its products primarily to original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. 

Seagate Technology plc was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

I use three key data points to gauge the value of any dividend equity or fund likeSeagate Technology plc. (STX): 

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, four more keyswill finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest.

But those first three primary keys, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money. 

STX Price

Seaggate’sprice per share was $53.05 at yesterday’s market close.A year ago its price was $31.37 for a gain of $21.68 per share.  

Assuming Seaggate’s price will trade in the range of $40 to $70 next year, perhaps about half that $21.68 gain could be realized in the coming year and move STX’s current $53.05 price to $64.05 by late-August, 2019. 

STX Dividends

Seagate’s most recent quarterly dividend was $0.63declared July 30th and payable October 30th.

At that most recent quarterly pay rate, its 2018 annual dividend is calculated at $2.52 yielding 4.75% at yesterday’s closing $53.05 price.

Gains For STX?

Adding the $2.52 estimated annual dividend to the $11.00 year over year theoretical price gain for STX makes a $13.52gross annual per share gain, which will be reduced by costs to trade the shares.