Central Bank & Trust Co. Sells 920 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Central Bank & Trust Co. decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 42,751 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 920 shares during the quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,963,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.09 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company’s fifty day moving average is $120.88 and its 200-day moving average is $122.76. The stock has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 43,110 shares of company stock worth $5,077,596 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of 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. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.