Tran Capital Management L.P. Cuts Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Tran Capital Management L.P. lowered its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 18.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 11,001 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,499 shares during the period. Tran Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,277,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,057,000 after buying an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,059,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in NetApp by 202.1% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 266,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,886,000 after buying an additional 178,135 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 20th. Bank of America boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Northland Securities raised their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $126.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.16, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.69.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

NetApp 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.