Moors & Cabot Inc. Trims Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Moors & Cabot Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 41.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,167 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,274 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 66.3% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 7,740 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $643,000 after buying an additional 3,086 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its position in shares of NetApp by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 29,741 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,469,000 after buying an additional 1,672 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 139,507 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $11,563,000 after buying an additional 1,086 shares during the period. Aviva PLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 41.0% in the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 98,770 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,198,000 after buying an additional 28,705 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $465,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.25% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, CAO Robert Parks sold 9,113 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.90, for a total value of $691,676.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.80, for a total transaction of $530,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 14,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,121,006.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Robert Parks sold 9,113 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.90, for a total transaction of $691,676.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 76,489 shares of company stock valued at $5,909,145 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $77.94 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $58.08 and a 12 month high of $80.53. The stock has a market cap of $16.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.09, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $75.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $74.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.08. NetApp had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 85.69%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 6th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NTAP. Morgan Stanley upgraded NetApp from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $60.00 to $74.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Susquehanna upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and raised their target price for the company from $62.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on NetApp from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. TD Cowen raised their target price on NetApp from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday, August 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.84.

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.