Private Client Services LLC Reduces Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Private Client Services LLC lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 13,552 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,081 shares during the period. Private Client Services LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,674,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 46.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $473,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 189.2% during the fourth quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 263,103 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,195,000 after buying an additional 172,132 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 60.5% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 527,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $55,355,000 after buying an additional 198,627 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 221.9% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,731,000 after acquiring an additional 207,968 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on NTAP. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.71 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $122.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $117.78.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.