Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Sells 1,418 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd reduced its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,453 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,418 shares during the quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,044,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $122.43 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $77.56 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.96. The company has a market capitalization of $25.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen increased their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.