NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,845 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 176 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 58.7% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in NetApp by 82.9% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp 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 transaction of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 in the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI raised their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen upped their price objective on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $108.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.33 billion, a PE ratio of 24.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.29 and a 52-week high of $112.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.10. 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 period last year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

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.