Neuberger Berman Group LLC Cuts Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Neuberger Berman Group LLC reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 23.6% to a total of 251,027 shares, valued at approximately $22.05 million.
• NetApp reported earnings per share of $1.93, exceeding analyst estimates, and posted a revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, a 3.8% year-over-year increase.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 1.9% with a payout ratio of 36.62%.

Neuberger Berman Group LLC reduced its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 23.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 251,027 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 77,393 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC owned about 0.12% of NetApp worth $22,050,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $218,000. Savvy Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,982 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $230,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 74.8% during the 4th quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 5,491 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $663,000 after purchasing an additional 2,349 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $458,000. Finally, Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $432,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $119.21.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7%

NetApp stock traded down $0.77 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $108.79. The company had a trading volume of 2,066,158 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,473,976. The stock has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.15, a PEG ratio of 2.50 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 company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The business has a fifty day moving average of $105.17 and a 200 day moving average of $100.83.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The company's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.80 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total transaction of $105,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,462,280.90. This trade represents a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 19,302 shares of company stock valued at $2,026,379. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.