Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 14,376 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Nordea Investment Management AB trimmed its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 249,297 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 14,376 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in NetApp were worth $28,951,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 2.8% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 23,584 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,038,000 after purchasing an additional 639 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A. raised its stake in NetApp by 18.3% in the 2nd quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 12,536 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after acquiring an additional 1,938 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 234.0% during the second quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 7,818 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,007,000 after purchasing an additional 5,477 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 11.3% during the second quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,638 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $340,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 242.2% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 7,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 5,377 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $117.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.82 billion, a PE ratio of 21.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.62 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $120.97 and a 200 day moving average of $123.36.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup increased their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

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.