Advisors Capital Management LLC Has $360,000 Holdings in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Advisors Capital Management LLC has reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 45.8%, selling 3,463 shares and leaving it with 4,098 shares valued at $360,000.
• In the first quarter, institutional investors, including Vanguard Group and UBS, have increased their holdings in NetApp, resulting in 92.17% of the company's stock being owned by institutional investors.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed ratings on NetApp, with a consensus target price of $124.07 and seven analysts rating it as a "Buy" while ten rated it as "Hold."

Advisors Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 45.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,098 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 3,463 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $25,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 375.0% in the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 54.9% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total value of $123,670.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 23,628 shares in the company, valued at $2,922,074.76. The trade was a 4.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total transaction of $918,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 288,305 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,160,004.40. This represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 20,000 shares of company stock worth $2,180,315. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased 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 report on Friday, May 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $124.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $0.79 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $123.37. 1,685,015 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,062,009. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $109.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $99.96. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 36.75%.

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.