Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. Sells 600 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. lessened its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,360 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $773,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 65.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,812,000 after acquiring an additional 35,172 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after acquiring an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth $473,000. Finally, Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $802,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.74 on Tuesday, reaching $129.08. The company had a trading volume of 172,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,961,904. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.56 billion, a PE ratio of 27.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $123.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $106.12. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.61%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.81.

NetApp 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.