Swiss National Bank Sells 30,500 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Swiss National Bank reduced its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 652,900 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 30,500 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in NetApp were worth $57,560,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank increased its holdings in NetApp by 40.4% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 490 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock 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 company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $104.64 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $61.54 and a 12-month high of $112.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $101.88 and a 200-day moving average of $90.39.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a 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 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.