Fort L.P. Decreases Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Fort L.P. decreased its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,356 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 337 shares during the quarter. Fort L.P.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $291,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 706.3% in the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock traded up $0.79 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $116.10. 1,901,457 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,185,913. The firm has a market cap of $23.77 billion, a PE ratio of 22.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $120.60. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $73.63 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. Equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report 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. Citigroup increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America upped their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

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.