Is Seagate Stock Still Leading Its Industry?
Over the five years leading up to October 16, 2026, one stock outperformed 19 of its 20 industry peers. That company is Seagate Technology (STX), a maker of mass-capacity data storage operating in the Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals industry. A lead that wide can come from either the group a company belongs to or the company itself. So which do you think it was: the industry Seagate sits in, or Seagate itself?
How Far Seagate Is Ahead Of Its Industry
Seagate stock rose 798.1% over those five years. The typical company in its industry rose 10.8%. Industry and sector figures here represent the median company of each group, regardless of size, rather than an index.
| 1-year | 3-year | 5-year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seagate Technology (STX) | 184.4% | 883.9% | 798.1% |
| Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals industry (median company) | 6.1% | 54.6% | 10.8% |
| Information Technology sector (median company) | -9.4% | 21.9% | -22.1% |
| All stocks in our data (median company) | -0.8% | 22.2% | -4.6% |
| S&P 500 index | 15.5% | 75.1% | 70.7% |
Stock price change to 2026-10-16, excluding dividends. Industry, sector and all-stock rows are the median company of each group.
Seagate also stood far ahead of its industry peers over the past year and the past three years. Only Dell Technologies posted a better return over the five years. With the typical peer barely moving, Seagate generated nearly all of that performance gap independently.
Was It Seagate’s Industry?
The broader market advanced over the five years, at least among the largest equities. The S&P 500, which the biggest companies dominate, rose 70.7%, while the typical stock Trefis tracks fell 4.6%. The technology sector faced a steeper decline, as the typical company in the Information Technology sector fell 22.1%.
Seagate’s own industry outperformed both the broader sector and the typical stock, ranking seventh of 12 industries in the sector. That provided a modest lift, yet it fell far short of Seagate’s total gain.
What Did Seagate’s Business Do?
Seagate grew faster than its industry. Revenue rose 20.5% a year on average over the past three years, compared to 6.2% for the typical company in its industry. That average spans a drop to $6.55 billion in fiscal 2024 and a rebound to $12.2 billion in fiscal 2026.
Between 2021 and 2026, revenue rose 14.2% while earnings per share rose 155.1%. The operating margin accounts for this difference. It widened by 20.6 percentage points, and the share count barely changed.
Investors also pay far more for those earnings. Seagate traded at 15.4 times earnings at the end of June 2021, shortly before the five years began. Today the stock trades at 45.2 times, against 26.0 times for the typical company in its industry. Both the business performance and the valuation multiple lifted the stock. Ultimately, the higher multiple accounts for more of the gain, since the multiple nearly tripled while earnings per share rose 155.1%.
On its fiscal Q4 2026 call, management said the company has aimed to keep its unit output flat since the last down cycle. Executives noted that the quarter’s improvement reflected a long-term pricing strategy and a stronger product mix. The data center segment brought in $2.9 billion of the quarter’s $3.6 billion in revenue.
Is Seagate Still Ahead Over The Past Year?
Seagate remains ahead of almost all its industry peers. Over the past year, the stock rose more than 24 of its 26 industry peers. This compares to beating 19 of 20 peers over five years, showing the lead has barely narrowed.
Management expects margins to keep widening. On the July 28, 2026 call, executives said they expect “sequential margin and cash generation growth throughout the year” in fiscal 2027. They guided to an adjusted operating margin of around 50% for fiscal Q1 2027, a forecast rather than a realized result. Management also noted that pricing differs from quarter to quarter.
Seagate’s operating margin will be a key metric to watch when the company reports fiscal Q1 2027 results, expected on or around October 27, 2026.
How To Act On STX?
Not necessarily on Seagate Technology alone, if your goal is long-term wealth. Wealth is built by owning the companies that keep outperforming, the leaders of their industries, wherever they are. Seagate Technology is one. Over the five years to October 2026, its stock rose 798.1%, ahead of 19 of the 20 other companies in Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals, where the typical company rose 10.8%.
Finding companies like these takes comparison across industries and sectors, and that is what the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio does. It holds 30 quality companies in equal weight and, since its inception in September 2020, has returned more than 105%, ahead of a benchmark that combines the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap and Russell 2000. See how we find the leaders.