Central Bank & Trust Co. Lowers Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Central Bank & Trust Co. decreased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 22.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 33,342 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 9,409 shares during the period. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,929,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its holdings in NetApp by 5,858.0% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its position in NetApp by 53.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $64,683,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $106.25 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $91.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.44. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $21.61 billion, a PE ratio of 19.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,194,282. The trade was a 3.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 29,026 shares of company stock worth $2,549,860. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.79.

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.