Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Sells 15,461 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. trimmed its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 39.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,453 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 15,461 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,068,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,299,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $174,449,000 after purchasing an additional 47,040 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in NetApp by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,264,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $95,927,000 after purchasing an additional 55,353 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in NetApp by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $84,202,000 after purchasing an additional 266,812 shares in the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 899,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $68,228,000 after buying an additional 179,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 812,588 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,659,000 after buying an additional 58,131 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group boosted their target price on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush boosted their target price on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Argus upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.60.

NetApp Trading Down 0.0 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $97.91 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $20.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $99.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $88.77. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.92 and a 1 year high of $112.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.