We recently published a list of 10 Best Affordable Tech Stocks to Buy According to Analysts. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) stands against the other affordable tech stocks.
Undoubtedly, technology continues to change rapidly. In a tech-rich world, investors and analysts have a lot to pick from. As we all know, Artificial Intelligence (Al) dominated conversations over the last couple of years.
US stocks have seen some revival from their recent lows as the economic data has provided confidence about the health of the US economy. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund has seen a run-up of over ~19% on a YTD basis. Much of this rally in the IT space was led by optimism about AI technology. However, some hints about the rate cuts also supported the broader increase.
As per the latest data, the global Al market has been pegged at $196.63 billion (according to estimates from Grand View Research). This exhibits a rise of ~$60 billion since 2022. This growth stemmed from increased practical use cases of Al technology, ranging from content creation to self-driving cars.
Growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR)
Al should continue to advance rapidly, with an improved focus on areas including natural language processing, computer vision, and generative Al. PWC reported that ~45% of total economic gains by 2030 should come from product enhancements, fueling consumer demand. Al is expected to drive greater product variety, with higher personalization, attractiveness, and affordability. The greatest economic gains from Al are expected to be in China (26% boost to GDP in 2030) and North America (14.5% boost). This equates to $10.7 trillion and will account for ~70% of the global economic impact.
Extended Reality (XR), which is known as the convergence of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), is expected to create immersive experiences throughout industries, mainly in gaming and entertainment. The increased use of smartphones, higher adoption of smart electronic devices, and deployments of 5G technology are expected to act as key growth drivers of the extended reality market in North America.
Notably, media companies have explored the possibility of using XR technology as a medium to tell stories and as an advertising outlet for numerous years. The interactive ad campaigns and product visualization components of XR should help drive growth in the advertising industry.
Cybersecurity Technology – Need and Emergence
The cybersecurity technology market has been pegged at US$190.4 billion in 2023, and this should touch US$298.5 billion in 2028 (according to data from Markets and Markets). This represents a CAGR of ~9.4%. Such healthy growth is expected to stem from the increased sophistication of cyber threats, the expansion of the digital landscape, and the pressing need for data protection. Therefore, cybersecurity solutions like data encryption, firewalls, and antivirus software are being used to protect and transfer data.
Technologies ranging from AI, machine learning (ML), and automation are being widely used in cybersecurity technology to improve threat detection and predictive analytics. The higher demand for industrial robots together with the growing adoption of managed security services should help create new opportunities in the market. Also, robotic cybersecurity solutions tend to protect endpoints and connectivity stacks help in preventing data leaks and asset downtimes.
Trends in Robotics
Robotic automation has seen wide acceptance throughout industries because of the introduction of digitization and the Industry 4.0 revolution. As a result, there has been a drastic change in traditional production and operational procedures. In Industry 4.0, smart factories are developed in a way that the machines can collaborate with human workers and other machines in real-time. This is done by using cloud computing, IoT, and cyber-physical systems.
The emergence of numerous techniques focused on production control and the introduction of automation solutions continue to make the key components of present production improvement policies. Apart from this, the awareness of industrial robots led to their deployment across manufacturing and healthcare industries. Moreover, demand is majorly driven by higher labor charges, which has prompted manufacturers to replace human labor with machines. Notably, Asia and Europe are tagged as the key growth regions of the world.
Growth in smart factories or smart manufacturing is expected to stem from rapid digitalization across varied industries and higher demand for industrial automation. A further factor that is expected to support growth over the next few years is the extensive use of manufacturing execution systems (MES) along with sophisticated data models for process-specific operations. The market for smart factories continues to see traction due to the increased use of reconditioned industrial robots and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems.
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A technician configuring a network-attached storage drive.
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX)
Forward P/E as of 23 August: 16.58x
Upside Potential: 19.72%
Expected EPS Growth This Year: 433.3%
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is a leading supplier of hard disk drives for data storage to the enterprise and consumer markets.
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) is committed to innovation as its R&D expenses were ~$1 billion in FY 2024. The company supported advancements like its Circularity Program, which is targeted at reducing e-waste.
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) continues to transition its portfolio to focus on mass-capacity drives for cloud companies and enterprises. This is because consumer applications for legacy HDDs are switching to faster flash-based solid-state drives.
Experts and analysts believe that there will be continued demand for mass-capacity drives over the upcoming 5 years. This is because enterprises are looking to capture more data and use a multi-tier storage approach. The nearline cloud solutions are expected to act as a significant demand driver, considering the sectoral shift towards cloud computing and AI-driven workloads.
While the company’s past performance was mainly supported by its strong product portfolio and healthy market presence, growing data storage demands together with expansion into cloud services should act as tailwinds for future growth. The company’s investment in advanced technologies such as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) places it well to capitalize on emerging trends and applications.
Northland Securities upped its target price on shares of Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) from $119.00 to $142.00. They gave an “Outperform” rating on 24th July. The number of hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database owning stakes in Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ:STX) stood at 44 in 2Q 2024.
Overall STX ranks 7th on our list of the best affordable tech stocks to buy according to analysts. While we acknowledge the potential of STX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than STX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.