Two Sigma Investments LP Sells 299,431 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Two Sigma Investments LP cut its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 92.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,300 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 299,431 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP's holdings in NetApp were worth $2,937,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in NetApp by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 120.7% during the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $7,998,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares during the last quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $5,151,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,069,617,000 after acquiring an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on NTAP. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $119.27.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were bought at an average price of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock worth $2,520,032. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.1%

NTAP traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $103.76. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,744,755 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,921,263. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.07, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. 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 is $90.87 and its 200-day moving average is $106.76.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.80 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

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.