NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 560,305 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,547 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $49,396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.94.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $97.95 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $60.92 and a one year high of $112.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $98.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. 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.