NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lowered its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 33.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 24,423 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 12,431 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,016,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management lifted its position in NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 4.3% in the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its position in NetApp by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $131.11 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $122.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.10, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.23. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.62 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on NTAP. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.40.

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.