Martingale Asset Management L P Trims Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Martingale Asset Management L P reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 83.2%, selling 130,472 shares during the first quarter and leaving it with 26,252 shares valued at approximately $2.3 million.
• NetApp's quarterly earnings exceeded analyst expectations, reporting $1.93 earnings per share on revenue of $1.73 billion, marking a 3.8% increase from the previous year.
• The company recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, representing an annualized dividend yield of 1.9% with a payout ratio of 36.62%.

Martingale Asset Management L P lessened its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 83.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 26,252 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 130,472 shares during the quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P's holdings in NetApp were worth $2,306,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 18.9% in the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 14,696 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,706,000 after acquiring an additional 2,339 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of NetApp by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 356,313 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $41,362,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723 shares in the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 6,066 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,177 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 27,288 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,168,000 after purchasing an additional 3,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total value of $105,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,462,280.90. This represents a 4.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 27,802 shares of company stock valued at $2,951,604 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

NetApp Trading Up 2.5%

NASDAQ NTAP traded up $2.72 on Wednesday, reaching $112.13. The stock had a trading volume of 3,260,993 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,027,189. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $106.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $100.20.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.54 by ($0.35). NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $119.64.

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.