Strategy Asset Managers LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Strategy Asset Managers LLC reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 38.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,532 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,059 shares during the period. Strategy Asset Managers LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management grew its position in shares of NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 4.3% during the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its position in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co grew its position in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 2.4 %

NetApp stock opened at $122.20 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $25.02 billion, a PE ratio of 23.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $121.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.35. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.08 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction 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 approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,716 shares of company stock worth $2,410,457 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group raised their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

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.