Everence Capital Management Inc. Has $511,000 Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Everence Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 45.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,800 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,930 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $511,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 70.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $691,339,000 after buying an additional 3,439,053 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $138,383,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 291.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,040,846 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $65,428,000 after buying an additional 775,136 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in NetApp by 83.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,577,675 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $100,735,000 after purchasing an additional 716,604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its stake in NetApp by 689.7% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $61,026,000 after purchasing an additional 702,391 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $100.91 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $20.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $98.61 and its 200-day moving average is $88.18. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.92 and a 1-year high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.45%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on NTAP. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Argus raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.94.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.