NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 267,989 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 6,734 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $16,095,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 0.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,575,097 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,643,670,000 after buying an additional 189,823 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 70.3% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $691,339,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439,053 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its stake in NetApp by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,347,509 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $141,038,000 after purchasing an additional 42,216 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in NetApp by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,068,077 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $171,649,000 after purchasing an additional 117,651 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in NetApp by 0.4% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,936,438 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $119,769,000 after purchasing an additional 7,244 shares during the period. 87.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.49, for a total value of $142,852.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 140,420 shares in the company, valued at $8,915,265.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.49, for a total value of $142,852.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 140,420 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,915,265.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 18,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.09, for a total transaction of $1,081,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 44,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,774.61. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,250 shares of company stock worth $1,806,885 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on NetApp from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $78.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $75.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 23rd. Finally, Loop Capital cut their target price on NetApp from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $74.24.

NetApp Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $66.46 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $63.76 and its 200-day moving average is $65.08. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $58.08 and a 1 year high of $79.09. The stock has a market cap of $14.22 billion, a PE ratio of 11.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.31 by $0.06. NetApp had a net margin of 19.93% and a return on equity of 103.19%. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.61 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Profile

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NetApp, Inc provides software, systems, and services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. The company offers cloud data services, including NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for AWS, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, NetApp Cloud Sync, NetApp Cloud Secure, NetApp Cloud Tiering, NetApp SaaS Backup, NetApp Kubernetes Service, and NetApp Cloud Insights.