Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Lowers Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 59.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,965 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,266 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $344,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth about $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 22.3% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 0.3 %

NTAP stock opened at $122.10 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business’s 50-day moving average is $121.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.37.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. TD Cowen boosted their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup raised their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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 note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

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.