KBC Group NV Lowers Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

KBC Group NV lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 1.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 876,419 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 14,614 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned 0.43% of NetApp worth $76,985,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth 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 purchased a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in 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 lifted its holdings in 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. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup increased their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. 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 MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $117.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated 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 now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 sold 17,302 shares of company stock worth $1,590,514. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $105.72 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.42. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $98.07 and a 200 day moving average of $104.16. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during 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%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.80 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 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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