NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Invst LLC

Invst LLC lowered its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,497 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 295 shares during the period. Invst LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its position in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 58.7% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its stake 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 valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Argus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. 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 data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’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 transaction, 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 available at this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’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 transaction, 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 available at this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 2.8 %

NTAP traded down $3.46 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $119.05. 2,385,889 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,609,858. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $125.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $108.25. The company has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.66, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

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

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.