Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Sells 537 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 57,630 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 537 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in NetApp were worth $7,118,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 59.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after buying an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $48,074,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 38.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 2.7 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $126.75 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.39. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $77.46 and a one year high of $135.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.76, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.