Martingale Asset Management L P Trims Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Martingale Asset Management L P lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 9.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 162,233 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 16,896 shares during the period. Martingale Asset Management L P’s holdings in NetApp were worth $20,037,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $8,263,000. Vinva Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 23.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 184,664 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $22,415,000 after purchasing an additional 34,512 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 8,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 182,867 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $22,586,000 after purchasing an additional 8,896 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its holdings in NetApp by 36.9% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 41,206 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,089,000 after buying an additional 11,106 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on NTAP. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 5.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.43 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.89 billion, a PE ratio of 22.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.56 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $122.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.95.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 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.