Russell Investments Group Ltd. Cuts Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Russell Investments Group Ltd. has reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 29.3% during the first quarter, now holding 476,987 shares valued at approximately $41.91 million.
• NetApp recently reported a quarterly earnings of $1.93 per share, surpassing analysts' estimates of $1.90 per share, with a revenue of $1.73 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, which represents an annualized yield of 1.9% with a payout ratio of 36.62%.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 29.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 476,987 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 198,006 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned 0.23% of NetApp worth $41,912,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 2.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,375,363,000 after purchasing an additional 597,956 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in NetApp by 12.3% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $308,107,000 after purchasing an additional 384,362 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,653,000 after acquiring an additional 220,393 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of NetApp by 24.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $327,848,000 after acquiring an additional 550,607 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $119.21.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction 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 represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,302 shares of company stock worth $2,026,379 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.77 on Friday, hitting $108.79. 2,066,158 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,473,976. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $105.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $100.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 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.