MML Investors Services LLC Has $1.53 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

MML Investors Services LLC reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,357 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 279 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,526,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after buying an additional 7,318 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in NetApp by 4.7% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after buying an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,059,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in NetApp by 202.1% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 266,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,886,000 after buying an additional 178,135 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday. Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.49 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $122.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.12. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.62 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $24.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $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 yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were 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 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.