NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Signet Financial Management LLC

Signet Financial Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,513 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 529 shares during the quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $756,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Eastern Bank increased its stake in NetApp by 58.8% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,397 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $207,000. Brookstone Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $222,000. Czech National Bank grew its position in NetApp by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 44,401 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,154,000 after acquiring an additional 2,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Range Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 46.0% during the 4th quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 7,054 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $819,000 after purchasing an additional 2,223 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $1.36 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $114.92. 1,420,961 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,263,143. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $121.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $123.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.13, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 51,159 shares of company stock worth $6,096,859. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Company 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.