Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Lowers Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 48.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,149 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 12,366 shares during the quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,624,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at about $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.86 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $117.21. 1,958,167 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,807,170. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $76.41 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.07, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $121.72.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. NetApp's revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 40.63%.

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.