Conning Inc. Has $226,000 Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Conning Inc. trimmed its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 62.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,569 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 4,270 shares during the period. Conning Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $226,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 826.9% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $117.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company's stock, valued at $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $107.48 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.42. 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 simple moving average is $100.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.73.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.80 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is presently 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.

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