Natixis Advisors LLC Sells 21,559 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Natixis Advisors LLC has reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 29.4%, now holding 51,844 shares valued at approximately $4.55 million.
• Several large investors have recently modified their positions in NetApp, with 92.17% of the stock currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
• NetApp's most recent earnings report showed an EPS of $1.93, surpassing analyst expectations and indicating a 3.8% revenue increase year-over-year.

Natixis Advisors LLC decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 29.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 51,844 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 21,559 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $4,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Utah Retirement Systems increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 34,152 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,964,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,197 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $371,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 54.9% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the period. Finally, Hohimer Wealth Management LLC grew its position in NetApp by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC now owns 29,694 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,608,000 after buying an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on NTAP. Citigroup boosted their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group lowered their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $118.86.

NetApp Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $1.32 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $103.33. 1,630,367 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,471,609. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.70 billion, a PE ratio of 18.19, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $104.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.73.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its 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. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The company's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is 36.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total transaction of $106,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 24,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,590,976.84. The trade was a 3.96% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,920,479 in the last 90 days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.