Ritholtz Wealth Management Reduces Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ritholtz Wealth Management reduced its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 26.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,708 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,699 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $414,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 826.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Citigroup increased their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Loop Capital lowered their target price on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. UBS Group lowered their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.79.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 296,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,998 shares of company stock worth $3,366,108. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $102.75 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $95.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.21.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.02%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

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.