Meritage Portfolio Management Sells 1,430 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Meritage Portfolio Management lessened its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 30,284 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,430 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,740,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays lifted their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $124.01 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.32. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $75.32 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.22, a P/E/G ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

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.