1832 Asset Management L.P. Decreases Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

1832 Asset Management L.P. trimmed its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 22.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 23,728 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 6,917 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 21,681 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,911,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589 shares in the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,187 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 3,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $291,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 286.8% in the 4th quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 13,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,146,000 after acquiring an additional 9,639 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus raised their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.59 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $126.15. 1,194,967 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,635,626. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $125.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $107.12. The company has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a PEG ratio of 5.11 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.20 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. 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.