NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Sentry Investment Management LLC

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,098 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 118 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $97,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,823,258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,143,331,000 after buying an additional 294,399 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in NetApp by 70.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $691,339,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439,053 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,687,364 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $298,809,000 after purchasing an additional 82,923 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,304,331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $138,398,000 after purchasing an additional 253,024 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $138,383,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $100.14 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $60.92 and a 52-week high of $112.48. The company has a market cap of $20.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group increased their price target on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.94.

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.