AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Decreases Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd reduced its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 40.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 380,957 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 258,561 shares during the period. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd owned approximately 0.19% of NetApp worth $33,463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 54.9% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $118.86.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $1.12 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $108.37. The company had a trading volume of 1,742,694 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,913,713. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $103.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $102.82. The company has a market capitalization of $21.71 billion, a PE ratio of 19.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. NetApp's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total value of $106,840.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 24,251 shares in the company, valued at $2,590,976.84. The trade was a 3.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,697,354. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.