Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 501 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA trimmed its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 36,240 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 501 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in NetApp by 39.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $41,357,000 after purchasing an additional 111,439 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 2,892 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $304,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,489 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $366,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in NetApp by 0.8% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 346,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,382,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in NetApp by 6,290.7% in the first quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 9,650 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,013,000 after acquiring an additional 9,499 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.00.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 2.7 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $129.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $122.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $122.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

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.