Pacer Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Pacer Advisors Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,624,269 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 158,834 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $173,943,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,192,354 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,091,499,000 after buying an additional 115,451 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 17.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,915,553 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $582,296,000 after acquiring an additional 718,409 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $458,060,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,127,533 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $442,018,000 after acquiring an additional 611,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 12.6% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,317,605 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $393,027,000 after acquiring an additional 370,405 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total transaction of $38,495.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $186,488.10. The trade was a 17.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.48, for a total transaction of $163,480.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 32,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,279,913.56. The trade was a 3.00% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 3,500 shares of company stock valued at $448,955 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $114.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Northland Securities raised their price objective on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Argus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.33.

NetApp Trading Up 3.2%

Shares of NTAP opened at $159.71 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $93.69 and a 12-month high of $192.83. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $130.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.93 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.70%.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.