QRG Capital Management Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

QRG Capital Management Inc. reduced its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 15.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,091 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,684 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,109,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $1.21 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $131.59. The stock had a trading volume of 1,714,128 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,988,357. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $27.08 billion, a PE ratio of 27.92, a P/E/G ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $121.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $104.68.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.83%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 33,286 shares of company stock valued at $4,287,086. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. TD Cowen raised their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

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.