  Long-term X-ray modulations on timescales from tens to hundreds of days have
been widely studied for X-ray binaries located in the Milky Way and the
Magellanic Clouds. For other nearby galaxies, only the most luminous X-ray
sources can be monitored with dedicated observations. We here present the first
systematic study of long-term X-ray variability of four ultraluminous X-ray
sources (ESO 243-49 HLX-1, Holmberg IX X-1, M81 X-6, and NGC 5408 X-1)
monitored with Swift. By using various dynamic techniques to analyse their
light curves, we find several interesting low-frequency quasi-periodicities.
Although the periodic signals may not represent any stable orbital modulations,
these detections reveal that such long-term regular patterns may be related to
superorbital periods and structure of the accretion discs. In particular, we
show that the outburst recurrence time of ESO 243-49 HLX-1 varies over time and
suggest that it may not be the orbital period. Instead, it may be due to some
kinds of precession, and the true binary period is expected to be much shorter.

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena