D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. Reduces Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 42.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 294,105 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 217,761 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $37,881,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 17.5% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 254.8% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of NetApp by 26.5% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $225,532,000 after acquiring an additional 450,263 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.9% during the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474 in the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Argus raised their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $121.24 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $123.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $117.10. The firm has a market cap of $24.95 billion, a PE ratio of 26.13, a P/E/G ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.83%.

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.