Rehmann Capital Advisory Group Sells 868 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Rehmann Capital Advisory Group reduced its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.6% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,088 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 868 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group’s holdings in NetApp were worth $534,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $497,556,000 after purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 254.8% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $74,257,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,334 shares of company stock worth $5,103,798. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock traded down $1.13 during trading on Thursday, reaching $133.49. The company had a trading volume of 132,627 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,980,956. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $120.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.69. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.47 billion, a PE ratio of 29.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One investment 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 data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

NetApp 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.