1620 Investment Advisors Inc. Decreases Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

1620 Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 90.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 725 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 6,594 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $64,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,812,000 after purchasing an additional 35,172 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after purchasing an additional 65,644 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after purchasing an additional 28,609 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded up $1.64 during trading on Thursday, reaching $115.75. 608,802 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,863,052. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. The company has a market cap of $23.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.27. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $104.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.59. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $65.71 and a 52-week high of $115.95.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.73.

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.