NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Bank of Nova Scotia

Bank of Nova Scotia trimmed its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 21.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,639 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 6,346 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia's holdings in NetApp were worth $1,989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 39.6% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 36,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,250,000 after buying an additional 10,494 shares during the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its holdings in NetApp by 55.8% in the 1st quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 221,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $19,492,000 after purchasing an additional 79,457 shares in the last quarter. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $321,000. UNICOM Systems Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $13,483,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $2,050,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $103.33 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $104.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.19, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.80 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the firm's 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 owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 24,251 shares in the company, valued at $2,590,976.84. This represents a 3.96% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 18,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,920,479 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group lowered their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. One investment 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, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $118.86.

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.

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