IFM Investors Pty Ltd Has $4.21 Million Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

IFM Investors Pty Ltd lowered its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 7.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 47,969 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 3,891 shares during the quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings in NetApp were worth $4,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 929.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $0.25 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $106.42. The company had a trading volume of 1,354,093 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,915,960. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $101.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $103.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The firm has a market cap of $21.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued 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 return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company's 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 17,302 shares of company stock worth $1,590,514. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $117.79.

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.