NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Holdings Lessened by Entropy Technologies LP

Entropy Technologies LP cut its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 42.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,213 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,783 shares during the quarter. Entropy Technologies LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $605,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 208.3% in the 4th quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,141 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,802,000 after purchasing an additional 16,311 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 61.7% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 23,525 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,731,000 after buying an additional 8,975 shares in the last quarter. Conning Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 6,839 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $794,000 after buying an additional 758 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Tobam increased its position in shares of NetApp by 61.1% in the fourth quarter. Tobam now owns 1,284 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 487 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,017,276. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 64,110 shares of company stock worth $7,632,601. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 2.8 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $119.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $120.98 and a 200-day moving average of $122.02.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Northland Securities lifted their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

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.