Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 39.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,442 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 5,498 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $742,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its stake in NetApp by 929.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 17,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,590,514. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of several research reports. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One research 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 stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $117.79.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded up $0.92 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $107.61. The stock had a trading volume of 1,400,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,923,130. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $99.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $103.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during 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 firm's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

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.