NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Eventide Asset Management LLC

Eventide Asset Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 48.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 95,422 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 88,834 shares during the quarter. Eventide Asset Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $11,786,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in NetApp by 20.3% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 27,141 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,352,000 after purchasing an additional 4,579 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its stake in NetApp by 124.2% in the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 42,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,194,000 after acquiring an additional 23,305 shares during the period. Centric Wealth Management boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.7% in the third quarter. Centric Wealth Management now owns 26,572 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,219,000 after acquiring an additional 693 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $8,263,000. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in NetApp by 23.0% during the third quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 184,664 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $22,415,000 after purchasing an additional 34,512 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Down 5.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.43 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $77.56 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $24.89 billion, a PE ratio of 22.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.95. 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 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 the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share 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 given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.