Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 4,266 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 59.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,965 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,266 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $344,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter valued at $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the third quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Hollencrest Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 165.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 530 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 0.3 %

NTAP opened at $122.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $121.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.37. The company has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

NetApp Company 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.