Hartford Investment Management Co. Has $1.47 Million Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Hartford Investment Management Co. decreased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,691 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 246 shares during the quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $117.73 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.94 billion, a PE ratio of 21.64, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $120.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.95. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total value of $54,579.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,553 shares in the company, valued at $1,395,024.75. The trade was a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 64,562 shares of company stock worth $7,687,180. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday. Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

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.