GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Has $14.72 Million Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 119,188 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 807 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $14,721,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 48.3% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $249,307,000 after purchasing an additional 773,773 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in 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 valued at $211,637,000 after buying an additional 613,583 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in NetApp by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $225,532,000 after acquiring an additional 450,263 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $56,313,000. Finally, APG Asset Management US Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $48,074,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock traded down $0.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $119.41. 1,158,132 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,827,316. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.45 billion, a PE ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $123.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $119.95. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week 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. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.63%.

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.