Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Sells 3,938 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 19th, 2023

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. cut its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP – Free Report) by 0.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 717,147 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,938 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned about 0.34% of NetApp worth $45,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 70.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $691,339,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439,053 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $138,383,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 628.2% during the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,078,635 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $64,783,000 after purchasing an additional 930,506 shares during the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $33,359,000. Finally, Mariner LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 176.0% during the first quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 646,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $53,669,000 after purchasing an additional 412,291 shares during the last quarter. 89.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $78.92 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $71.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.04. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $58.08 and a 1 year high of $79.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.76 billion, a PE ratio of 13.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.22.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 31st. The data storage provider reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.20. NetApp had a return on equity of 93.62% and a net margin of 20.02%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.21 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 7th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 6th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.48%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 872 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $64,161.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 13,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,026,661.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 872 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $64,161.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 13,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,026,661.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $315,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 283,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,813,500. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,994 shares of company stock valued at $941,478. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. Citigroup began coverage on NetApp in a research report on Thursday, June 29th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. Northland Securities lifted their target price on NetApp from $86.00 to $89.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NetApp from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on NetApp from $70.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on NetApp from $72.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $73.95.

About NetApp

(Free Report)

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.