Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC Has $2.10 Million Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,115 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,103,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 208.3% in the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,141 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,802,000 after buying an additional 16,311 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 61.7% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 23,525 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,731,000 after purchasing an additional 8,975 shares during the period. Conning Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 6,839 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $794,000 after acquiring an additional 758 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Tobam grew its stake in NetApp by 61.1% in the fourth quarter. Tobam now owns 1,284 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,000 after acquiring an additional 487 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped 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 upped their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $122.91 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $120.99 and its 200-day moving average is $122.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $24.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 2.94 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 1.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,110 shares of company stock valued at $7,632,601 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.