NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Holdings Lessened by Foster & Motley Inc.

Foster & Motley Inc. reduced its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 33,474 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,188 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,951,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in NetApp by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 164,660 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $14,516,000 after purchasing an additional 33,811 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in NetApp by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 30,321 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,673,000 after purchasing an additional 778 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,886 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $118,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc lifted its position in NetApp by 116.3% in the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 115,880 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $10,216,000 after purchasing an additional 62,295 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were 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 $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.60.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $98.24 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.27 billion, a PE ratio of 22.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $99.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $88.77. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.92 and a 12-month high of $112.48.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.45%.

NetApp 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.