Vontobel Holding Ltd. Lowers Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,096 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,495 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,860,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in NetApp by 66.3% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 7,740 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $643,000 after acquiring an additional 3,086 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 29,741 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,469,000 after purchasing an additional 1,672 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 139,507 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $11,563,000 after purchasing an additional 1,086 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 41.0% in the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 98,770 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $8,198,000 after purchasing an additional 28,705 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $465,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. TD Cowen upped their price target on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.94.

NetApp Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $97.95 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $60.92 and a 52-week high of $112.48. The stock has a market cap of $20.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $98.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $88.42. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.