Swedbank AB Lowers Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Swedbank AB lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,749 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,031 shares during the period. Swedbank AB’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,891,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Algert Global LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 26.9% in the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 4,108 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $529,000 after buying an additional 870 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its stake in NetApp by 32.3% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 23,928 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,082,000 after acquiring an additional 5,843 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 22.5% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 11,981 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,543,000 after purchasing an additional 2,203 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 6,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $773,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 21,417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,759,000 after purchasing an additional 2,974 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average is $121.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

About NetApp

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.