National Bank of Canada FI Cuts Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

National Bank of Canada FI reduced its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 93,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 10,385 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,079,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Royal Fund Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 43.4% during the fourth quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC now owns 22,824 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,012,000 after buying an additional 6,911 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 627,383 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $55,310,000 after buying an additional 9,912 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 19.9% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 8,479 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $748,000 after purchasing an additional 1,405 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 65,825 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,803,000 after purchasing an additional 4,386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Global Investments bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $412,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $108.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $62.29 and a one year high of $112.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.59, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $103.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $91.10.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were 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 directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% 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.