Swedbank AB Decreases Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Swedbank AB lessened its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 54,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 857 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB’s holdings in NetApp were worth $6,766,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,057,000 after buying an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,059,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in NetApp by 132.1% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,230 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,963,000 after acquiring an additional 16,066 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.43 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $25.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $77.56 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $122.31 and its 200 day moving average is $122.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

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.