NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 560,305 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,547 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned approximately 0.27% of NetApp worth $49,396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 2.2 %

NTAP opened at $97.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $88.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.92 and a 1-year high of $112.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. 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 research note on Friday, March 1st. Argus raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.94.

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.