Panagora Asset Management Inc. Cuts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Panagora Asset Management Inc. significantly reduced its stake in NetApp by 68.5%, selling 667,684 shares, and owning approximately 307,562 shares worth $27 million at the end of Q1.
• Insider transactions revealed that CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares for about $865,130, decreasing his ownership stake by 2.78%.
• NetApp recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, reflecting an annualized yield of 1.8%, with the payout scheduled for October 22nd.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 68.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 307,562 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 667,684 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. owned about 0.15% of NetApp worth $27,016,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 375.0% during the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Olde Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 54.9% during the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp 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 in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,802 shares of company stock worth $2,951,604 in the last 90 days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $112.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $106.77 and a 200 day moving average of $100.07. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 123.24%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Northland Securities increased their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $150.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $124.07.

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.

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