Principal Financial Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

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

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,653,000 after purchasing an additional 220,393 shares during the period. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $335,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,919 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $106.66 on Wednesday. The business's fifty day moving average price is $101.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $103.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a market capitalization of $21.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.78, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price 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. UBS Group lowered their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note 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 research note on Monday, April 28th. Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $117.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares of the company's stock, 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 is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,302 shares of company stock worth $1,590,514 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.47% 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.