The Risk Morgan Stanley Watches at Seagate (STX) Farooq Fri, November 13, 2026 at 4:33 PM EST 3 min read STX -4.98% ^VIX +3.21% ^IXIC -0.91% Trade STX on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
We just published a list of the 10 Multibagger Stocks to Buy According to Wall Street and Seagate (NASDAQ:STX) ranked 7th on this list.
Wall Street's AI trade just had one of its worst weeks in years. Politics and inflation hit it at the same time. The Nasdaq Composite posted its deepest one-day drop since April 2025 last week, after Democrats swept the midterm elections and investors began weighing tougher scrutiny of AI and limits on data center construction. The Cboe Volatility Index climbed to a seven-month high the same day.
Stocks first cheered the election. They closed sharply higher the day after the vote because the result cleared up political uncertainty. Then chipmakers and data center operators fell, even as the biggest, cash-rich AI spenders rose. A slower buildout eases cash demands on the companies doing the spending, but it squeezes the operators and suppliers whose growth depends on fast construction.
Scott Chronert, head of US equity strategy at Citi Research, said a change in the pace of the data center buildout changes the basic path for many of those suppliers. Our list of oversold AI stocks where Wall Street analysts see 50% upside or more covers more of the group.
Inflation added a second worry. The Labor Department said consumer prices rose 0.4% in October, a third straight gain of 0.4% or more. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 0.3%. Markets now fully price in a Federal Reserve rate increase of at least 25 basis points in December, up from 84% a day earlier, according to CME FedWatch.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller said the central bank should raise rates in December even if inflation had cooled. He said a half-point move should be considered if the picture worsened. Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group, said investors began to wonder whether the Fed worried more about inflation than they did, and sold some stocks.
The rout wiped out trillions of dollars in market value and clouded the outlook for a global economy the AI boom has been supporting. Readers following the chip side of the trade can find more names in our list of the best semiconductor stocks to buy for the next decade. Ahead of the Fed's December meeting, traders expect about two more quarter-point increases in total this cycle, according to LSEG data.
Seagate made it to our list because it has an average upside potential of 94%. Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring rated Seagate Overweight with a $1,148 price target on November 6. He says fundamentals are strong while sentiment is weak, and he thinks buybacks could eventually reach about 30% of the company's market value. Pricing in calendar 2028 is the risk he watches.
Seagate makes the hard drives cloud companies use to store data. Its Mozaic drives use heat-assisted magnetic recording, known as HAMR, to fit up to 44 terabytes on one drive, and two leading cloud providers are ramping them. Revenue rose 61% in the fiscal first quarter, and gross margin hit a record.
Chief Executive Officer Dave Mosley expects HAMR to make up roughly half of nearline shipments by the end of the year. Management says most nearline supply is already allocated through 2028. Our look at how Seagate rose selling a technology many had buried tells the longer story.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of STX as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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