Swedbank AB Sells 857 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Swedbank AB cut its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 857 shares during the period. Swedbank AB’s holdings in NetApp were worth $6,766,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Robbins Farley bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.43 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $25.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $122.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.96. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.56 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

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.