NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lessened its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 57,630 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 537 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in NetApp were worth $7,118,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter valued at $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $126.75 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.46 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.96 billion, a PE ratio of 24.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.39. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.63%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value 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. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.