Vest Financial LLC Sells 5,511 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Vest Financial LLC lowered its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 23.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,014 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 5,511 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $1,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after buying an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after acquiring an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 8.0% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 220,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $335,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,919 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $106.25 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $21.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.53, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.80 EPS. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,194,282. The trade was a 3.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares of the company's stock, 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 three months, insiders have sold 29,026 shares of company stock valued at $2,549,860. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $117.79.

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.