abrdn plc Sells 12,135 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

abrdn plc cut its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 11.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 94,347 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 12,135 shares during the period. abrdn plc’s holdings in NetApp were worth $10,910,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America lifted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 0.9 %

NTAP opened at $122.91 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $120.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.15.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated 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 64,110 shares of company stock worth $7,632,601 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.