IFM Investors Pty Ltd Trims Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

IFM Investors Pty Ltd lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 7.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm 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 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in NetApp by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $346,653,000 after purchasing an additional 220,393 shares during the period. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. raised its stake in NetApp by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $335,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,919 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 17,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,590,514. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $107.48 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $21.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.42. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $100.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $103.54. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current 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 issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. 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 note on Monday, April 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One equities 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, NetApp presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $117.79.

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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