American Century Companies Inc. Reduces Holdings in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 2.0%, owning 193,346 shares worth approximately $16.98 million after selling 3,894 shares in the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Assenagon Asset Management and Achmea Investment Management, increased their stakes in NetApp, with some reporting growth rates of up to 55.8%.
• NetApp recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52, representing an annualized dividend of $2.08 and a yield of 1.9%, with the payout ratio currently at 36.62%.

American Century Companies Inc. lessened its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 2.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 193,346 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 3,894 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.10% of NetApp worth $16,984,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 39.6% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 36,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,250,000 after purchasing an additional 10,494 shares in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 55.8% during the first quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 221,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $19,492,000 after purchasing an additional 79,457 shares in the last quarter. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $321,000. UNICOM Systems Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $13,483,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $2,050,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America lifted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $124.07.

NetApp Trading Down 2.9%

NTAP traded down $3.42 during trading on Friday, hitting $113.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,182,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,048,333. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $106.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $100.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.10, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.22% and a net margin of 17.77%.The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 36.75%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 2.91% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,802 shares of company stock worth $2,951,604 over the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.