NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Holdings Lowered by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 4.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 282,215 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 12,094 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.14% of NetApp worth $24,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after acquiring an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 5,858.0% during the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in NetApp by 53.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $64,683,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly 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 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 sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 17,302 shares of company stock worth $1,590,514. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $117.79.

NetApp Stock Down 0.2%

NTAP stock traded down $0.25 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $106.42. 1,354,744 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,915,943. The company has a market capitalization of $21.32 billion, a PE ratio of 18.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $101.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $103.49.

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 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 company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast 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, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

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.