Martingale Asset Management L P Sells 16,896 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Martingale Asset Management L P trimmed its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 162,233 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 16,896 shares during the quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P owned approximately 0.08% of NetApp worth $20,037,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Robbins Farley purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Northland Securities raised their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Down 5.5 %

NTAP opened at $122.43 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $122.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.95. The company has a market capitalization of $24.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value 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 $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.