Values First Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Values First Advisors Inc. trimmed its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 69.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 652 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,458 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $81,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp raised its stake in NetApp by 706.3% in the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the period. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter valued at about $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth about $32,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group lifted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has 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 stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $119.41 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $123.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $119.85. The stock has a market cap of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm 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 revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 40.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.