Foster & Motley Inc. Sells 1,188 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Foster & Motley Inc. cut its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 33,474 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,188 shares during the period. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,951,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in NetApp by 82.9% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. Argus raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $98.24 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $60.92 and a 52-week high of $112.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.27 billion, a PE ratio of 22.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $99.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $88.77.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.