NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Stifel Financial Corp

Stifel Financial Corp lowered its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 12.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 222,539 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 30,858 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp owned about 0.11% of NetApp worth $27,486,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 20.9% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,059,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $3.51 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $127.60. The company had a trading volume of 1,656,781 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,205,419. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $123.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $137.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.