Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Sells 5,446 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 7.6% during the first quarter, selling 5,446 shares and holding 66,085 shares valued at approximately $5.8 million at the end of that quarter.
• Research analysts have set various price targets for NetApp, with the consensus target currently at $119.21, reflecting mixed sentiments among analysts with ratings ranging from sell to buy.
• NetApp recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, translating to an annual yield of 1.9%, with a payout ratio of 36.62%.

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. trimmed its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 66,085 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 5,446 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,805,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 375.0% in the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 54.9% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 929.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its stake 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 worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $119.21.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7%

NetApp stock opened at $108.79 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a PE ratio of 19.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $105.17 and a 200 day moving average of $100.68.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.80 earnings per share. NetApp's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

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

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.

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