Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Has $1.62 Million Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 48.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 12,366 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,624,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in NetApp by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 30,627 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,783,000 after buying an additional 2,814 shares in the last quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners raised its position in shares of NetApp by 6.8% during the third quarter. Balboa Wealth Partners now owns 3,370 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $416,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.8% during the third quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 21,454 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,650,000 after acquiring an additional 171 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 2.0% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,448 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $796,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank increased its position in NetApp by 22.2% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,474 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $182,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $118.07 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $24.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.06, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.74. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $76.41 and a 1-year high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.63%.

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.