NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Decreased by Signet Financial Management LLC

Signet Financial Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 311 shares during the period. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $620,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 70.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $691,339,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439,053 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $138,383,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 291.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,040,846 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $65,428,000 after acquiring an additional 775,136 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 83.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,577,675 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $100,735,000 after acquiring an additional 716,604 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 689.7% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $61,026,000 after acquiring an additional 702,391 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Argus upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Two research analysts have 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.94.

NetApp Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $102.54 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.92 and a 52 week high of $112.48. The firm has a market cap of $21.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.02 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,871 shares of company stock worth $3,262,645 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.37% 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.