Strategic Advocates LLC Sells 4,063 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Strategic Advocates LLC has reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 25.1%, selling 4,063 shares and now holding a total of 12,151 shares valued at approximately $1,067,000.
• Major investors like Assenagon Asset Management and Achmea Investment Management have significantly increased their stakes in NetApp, with increases of 39.6% and 55.8% respectively during the first quarter.
• NetApp recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, yielding 2.0%, and has a dividend payout ratio of 36.62%.

Strategic Advocates LLC cut its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 25.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,151 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 4,063 shares during the period. Strategic Advocates LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $1,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 54.9% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's 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 directly owned 296,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,920,479. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Barclays upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $118.86.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $3.03 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.10. 1,414,970 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,410,739. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25. The company has a market cap of $20.26 billion, a PE ratio of 17.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.44. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $104.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $101.98.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued 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. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

About NetApp

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.