Board of the Pension Protection Fund Sells 3,700 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund decreased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 50.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,700 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 3,700 shares during the period. Board of the Pension Protection Fund's holdings in NetApp were worth $325,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,485,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 120.7% in the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,998,000 after purchasing an additional 37,684 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 39.6% in 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 during the period. Finally, Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $5,151,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Down 0.4%

NTAP stock opened at $104.75 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $104.40. 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 company has a market cap of $20.99 billion, a PE ratio of 18.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 1.42.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on NTAP. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $117.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The sale 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 firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,302 shares of company stock worth $1,590,514 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% 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.

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