NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Lowered by Navellier & Associates Inc.

Navellier & Associates Inc. cut its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 43,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,882 shares during the quarter. Navellier & Associates Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $401,000. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department bought a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,418,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. grew its holdings in NetApp by 83.0% in the 3rd quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 14,136 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,746,000 after buying an additional 6,410 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 24,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its holdings in NetApp by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 545,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $67,387,000 after buying an additional 18,554 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $123.45 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $121.56 and a 200-day moving average of $122.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.11, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $77.30 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 40.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

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.