Vontobel Holding Ltd. Lowers Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 41.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,728 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,000 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $707,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $718,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at $602,000. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 8,067 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $996,000 after acquiring an additional 547 shares in the last quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 38,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,760,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its position in NetApp by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,001 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,211,000 after purchasing an additional 2,073 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $126.53 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $123.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $119.61. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. NetApp’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

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.