Strategic Global Advisors LLC Sells 3,307 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Strategic Global Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 37,533 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,307 shares during the period. Strategic Global Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in NetApp by 70.3% during 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 buying an additional 3,439,053 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of NetApp by 198.9% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,885,943 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $248,117,000 after purchasing an additional 2,585,728 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $138,383,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 628.2% during the 4th quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,078,635 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,783,000 after purchasing an additional 930,506 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 23,444.2% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 897,035 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $57,276,000 after purchasing an additional 893,225 shares during the last quarter. 90.25% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 26th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. Northland Securities dropped their price target on NetApp from $89.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $78.35.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $0.29 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $78.82. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 449,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,085,979. The company has a market cap of $16.46 billion, a PE ratio of 14.24, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.28. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $77.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.33. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $58.08 and a 12-month high of $80.53.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 85.69% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 6th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.44, for a total transaction of $1,747,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 103,659 shares in the company, valued at $8,234,670.96. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.44, for a total transaction of $1,747,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 103,659 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,234,670.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 872 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $64,161.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 13,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,026,661.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,357 shares of company stock worth $2,922,982 in the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.