NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Holdings Lowered by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 517,356 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 6,075 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $60,055,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in NetApp by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 232.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,705 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,110 shares of company stock valued at $7,632,601 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.91 on Monday. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $120.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

NetApp Company 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.