Bessemer Group Inc. Lowers Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Bessemer Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 74.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,442 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 29,758 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $918,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 5,858.0% in the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $103,942,000 after acquiring an additional 880,406 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $241,867,000 after acquiring an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $64,683,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,302 shares of company stock worth $1,590,514 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $117.79.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.92 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $107.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,400,089 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,923,816. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25. The company's 50-day moving average is $99.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $103.94. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $21.56 billion, a PE ratio of 18.95, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.42.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced 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 net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is 36.62%.

NetApp Company 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.