NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Gallacher Capital Management LLC

Gallacher Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 52.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,397 shares during the period. Gallacher Capital Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $514,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 46.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $473,000. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $802,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 189.2% during the 4th quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 263,103 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $23,195,000 after acquiring an additional 172,132 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $114.18 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $114.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 0.96. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 1.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 reacquire up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 in the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Argus raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

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.