Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. Sells 6,000 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 19.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 6,000 shares during the quarter. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in NetApp by 25.8% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 164,660 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $14,516,000 after buying an additional 33,811 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in NetApp by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 30,321 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,673,000 after purchasing an additional 778 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,886 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $166,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc boosted its position in NetApp by 116.3% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 115,880 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $10,216,000 after purchasing an additional 62,295 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total value of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $2.19 during trading on Friday, hitting $97.95. 1,692,490 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,283,203. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market cap of $20.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.26, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $98.99 and its 200-day moving average is $88.52. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.92 and a 52 week high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.02 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wedbush boosted their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. TD Cowen upped their price target on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays upped their price target on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.60.

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.