NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Position Cut by CX Institutional

CX Institutional reduced its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,536 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 181 shares during the quarter. CX Institutional’s holdings in NetApp were worth $294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $126.00 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $25.62 billion, a PE ratio of 23.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month 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. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.62.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during 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 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 20th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased 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, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.