Easterly Investment Partners LLC Reduces Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 35.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,345 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 8,822 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,716,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 58.7% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,334 shares of company stock worth $5,103,798. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

NetApp stock traded up $2.36 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $134.45. 690,269 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,985,677. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $134.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $119.51 and a 200-day moving average of $103.47. The company has a market cap of $27.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

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.