Handelsbanken Fonder AB Reduces Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 6.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 164,445 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 12,013 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned about 0.08% of NetApp worth $14,445,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 826.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% in the 4th 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. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th 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. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $117.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at approximately $577,668. This represents a 78.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,498 shares of company stock valued at $2,500,978. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded down $2.45 during trading on Friday, hitting $100.49. 3,515,887 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,937,269. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $93.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.62%.

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.