Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Sells 13,294 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lessened its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 25.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 38,657 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 13,294 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,408,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 68.1% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 454 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $300,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 60,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,338,000 after purchasing an additional 12,634 shares during the period. Sachetta LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $290,000. Finally, Balentine LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 3,057 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $270,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NTAP traded up $1.53 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $115.64. 455,418 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,861,260. The business has a 50 day moving average of $104.78 and a 200 day moving average of $93.59. The company has a market capitalization of $23.87 billion, a PE ratio of 26.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.71 and a 1-year high of $115.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $92.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $104.73.

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.