Entropy Technologies LP Sells 50,437 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Entropy Technologies LP lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 84.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,996 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 50,437 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP's holdings in NetApp were worth $1,111,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $281,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 8,115 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $852,000 after buying an additional 405 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its stake in NetApp by 19.5% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 293,504 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $30,809,000 after buying an additional 47,951 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14.2% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 267,040 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $28,031,000 after buying an additional 33,279 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL increased its position in shares of NetApp by 11.4% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 19,411 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,038,000 after acquiring an additional 1,990 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group lifted their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NTAP stock traded down $1.61 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $118.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,466,748 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,806,486. The stock has a market cap of $24.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.41 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $121.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 40.62%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.