Sentry Investment Management LLC Sells 118 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 9.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,098 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 118 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $97,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,812,000 after buying an additional 35,172 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after purchasing an additional 65,644 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after buying an additional 28,609 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in NetApp by 2.2% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,568,000 after buying an additional 1,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter worth about $1,171,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.94.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $100.14 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $20.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $60.92 and a twelve 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $98.83 and a 200 day moving average of $88.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.02 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

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.