Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $11.88 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 92,225 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,308 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in NetApp were worth $11,879,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 254.8% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after buying an additional 1,654,942 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after buying an additional 950,204 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $249,307,000 after buying an additional 773,773 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 40.1% during the 4th quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,771,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $156,183,000 after buying an additional 507,317 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $121.68 on Thursday. 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 $70.82 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $123.42 and a 200-day moving average of $117.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. TD Cowen raised their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,952 shares of company stock valued at $4,016,328 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.