MV Capital Management Inc. Lowers Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

MV Capital Management Inc. cut its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 18.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,415 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 310 shares during the quarter. MV Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $124,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.79.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $102.63 on Thursday. 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 company has a market cap of $20.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a 50 day moving average of $92.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $106.11.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 28,498 shares of company stock worth $2,500,978. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.