Forsta AP Fonden Has $4.88 Million Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Forsta AP Fonden decreased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 51.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 42,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 44,400 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,875,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Hollencrest Capital Management raised its stake in NetApp by 165.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 530 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Barclays raised their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,123,351 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 0.3 %

NTAP opened at $122.10 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $121.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.37. The firm has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

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.