Palouse Capital Management Inc. Trims Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Palouse Capital Management Inc. trimmed its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 26,747 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 896 shares during the period. NetApp comprises 2.1% of Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,304,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 17.5% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 26.5% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $225,532,000 after buying an additional 450,263 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.9% in the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in NetApp by 12.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on NTAP. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity

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

NetApp Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NTAP traded down $1.14 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $125.39. The company had a trading volume of 442,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,831,111. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $123.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $119.61. 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 stock has a market cap of $25.81 billion, a PE ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. Research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

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.