Convergence Investment Partners LLC Decreases Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Convergence Investment Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,190 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,819 shares during the quarter. NetApp accounts for about 1.0% of Convergence Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Convergence Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,317,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $27,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth about $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

NetApp Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50 day moving average is $120.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.81. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.