HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 11,223 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 37.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,363 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 11,223 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $2,266,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in NetApp by 17.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of NetApp by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in NetApp by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $152,270,000 after purchasing an additional 342,415 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on NTAP. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upped their price target 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. Finally, Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.40.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company's stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $1.56 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $121.95. 885,919 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,851,572. The company's 50 day moving average is $122.90 and its 200 day moving average is $123.99. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.62 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.79 billion, a PE ratio of 22.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.