Kerrisdale Advisers LLC Decreases Holdings in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Kerrisdale Advisers LLC decreased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 39.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,701 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,700 shares during the period. Kerrisdale Advisers LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $882,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 68.7% in the fourth quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the third quarter valued at $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total value of $193,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 30,297 shares in the company, valued at $5,872,164.54. The trade was a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total transaction of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 46,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. This trade represents a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 55,072 shares of company stock worth $8,719,520 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Evercore set a $210.00 target price on NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Bank of America upped their target price on NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $150.00 to $209.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $179.77.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $187.02 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $175.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $138.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.44. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $93.69 and a fifty-two week high of $209.06. The company has a market capitalization of $36.70 billion, a PE ratio of 29.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.34 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.