Signet Financial Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Signet Financial Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,513 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 529 shares during the period. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $756,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the third quarter worth $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,159 shares of company stock worth $6,096,859 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $1.36 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $114.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,420,961 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,263,143. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $121.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $123.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.13, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

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.