NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by LMR Partners LLP

LMR Partners LLP cut its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 92.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 115,238 shares during the period. LMR Partners LLP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,222,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 46.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $208,000. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of NetApp by 221.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,731,000 after acquiring an additional 207,968 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 18.3% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 9,486 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $996,000 after acquiring an additional 1,466 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. UBS Group upped their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on 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 owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,716 shares of company stock worth $2,410,457 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 2.4 %

NTAP opened at $122.20 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.08 and a 12 month high of $135.01.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.63%.

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.