ING Groep NV Sells 1,337 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

ING Groep NV reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 26,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,337 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,036,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 4.5% in the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $340,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.0% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,448 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $796,000 after buying an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DGS Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $558,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $124.47 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $120.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. 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 12-month low of $85.28 and a 12-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, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.33.

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.