Palouse Capital Management Inc. Lowers Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Palouse Capital Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 26,747 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 896 shares during the quarter. NetApp comprises 2.1% of Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $372,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 36.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 10.2% in the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 4,948 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $519,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the period. Morton Capital Management LLC CA acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in NetApp by 14.3% in the first quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $921,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were 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. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $1.14 on Monday, hitting $125.39. 442,618 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,831,111. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $123.84 and its 200 day moving average is $119.61. The stock has a market cap of $25.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

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.