Advisors Asset Management Inc. Sells 4,227 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Advisors Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 23.3% in the first quarter, selling 4,227 shares and now holding 13,944 shares valued at approximately $1.23 million.
• NetApp's stock price has seen a 1.3% increase, reaching $125.09, with a market capitalization of $24.97 billion and a P/E ratio of 22.10.
• The company has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 1.7% with a current payout ratio of 36.75%.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. reduced its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 23.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,944 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 4,227 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,090 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,519,000 after acquiring an additional 2,894 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in NetApp by 34.9% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 58,817 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $6,828,000 after purchasing an additional 15,232 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 22,537 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,616,000 after purchasing an additional 2,330 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in NetApp by 29.6% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 209,295 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $24,294,000 after purchasing an additional 47,857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moore Capital Management LP purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,384,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $124.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $1.09 on Friday, reaching $124.00. The stock had a trading volume of 1,868,584 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,189,446. The stock has a market cap of $24.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The business's 50-day moving average price is $109.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $99.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.31.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is 36.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.85, for a total value of $925,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 283,688 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,879,438.80. The trade was a 2.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total transaction of $123,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,628 shares in the company, valued at $2,922,074.76. This trade represents a 4.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,500 shares of company stock worth $3,045,445 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

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.