TCW Group Inc. Reduces Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

TCW Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 480,354 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 22,084 shares during the quarter. TCW Group Inc. owned about 0.24% of NetApp worth $55,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $516,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $340,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in NetApp by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,448 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $796,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DGS Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $124.47 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $120.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.96. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.28 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Northland Securities increased their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.33.

NetApp 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.