NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Position Decreased by Bleakley Financial Group LLC

Bleakley Financial Group LLC decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,710 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 199 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $680,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 66.3% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 7,740 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $643,000 after purchasing an additional 3,086 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its holdings in NetApp by 6.0% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 29,741 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,469,000 after buying an additional 1,672 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 0.8% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 139,507 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $11,563,000 after buying an additional 1,086 shares during the last quarter. Aviva PLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 41.0% during the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 98,770 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,198,000 after acquiring an additional 28,705 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $465,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total value of $1,540,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,871 shares of company stock valued at $3,262,645 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.94.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $101.81 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.01 billion, a PE ratio of 23.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.92 and a 12-month high of $112.48. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $97.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $87.55.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.45%.

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.