Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Lowers Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lowered its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,418 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 233 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $569,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in NetApp by 57.5% during 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 in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 17.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $232,502,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 254.8% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in NetApp by 26.5% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $225,532,000 after purchasing an additional 450,263 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $119.04 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.66, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $124.44 and a 200 day moving average of $116.38.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

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.