Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 12,094 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings 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 firm owned 282,215 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 12,094 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.14% of NetApp worth $24,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Horizon Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at about $62,000. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its holdings in NetApp by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 42,428 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,727,000 after purchasing an additional 2,682 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in NetApp by 145.2% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 12,765 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,121,000 after purchasing an additional 7,559 shares during the last quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 13,879 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,219,000 after purchasing an additional 1,205 shares during the period. Finally, Cypress Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $1,131,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NTAP traded down $1.15 on Friday, reaching $105.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,538,114 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,914,460. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.09 billion, a PE ratio of 18.53, a PEG ratio of 2.43 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 moving average of $101.93 and a 200-day moving average of $103.32.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 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 directly owned 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 17,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,590,514 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $117.79.

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.