Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Cuts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,532 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 789 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,643,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in NetApp by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,653,000 after purchasing an additional 220,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its stake in NetApp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $335,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,919 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,302 shares of company stock worth $1,590,514. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $107.48 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $21.53 billion, a PE ratio of 18.92, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $100.28 and a 200 day moving average of $103.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 36.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.79.

NetApp Company 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.