Moors & Cabot Inc. Lowers Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Moors & Cabot Inc. reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 13.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 419 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $355,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp raised its position in NetApp by 706.3% in the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter worth $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Argus raised their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,452 shares of company stock worth $4,970,628. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.22 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $123.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $116.56. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.34, a P/E/G ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.