NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Holdings Cut by Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. trimmed its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 167,665 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,015 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $19,463,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $45,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

NetApp stock opened at $122.09 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $120.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 43,110 shares of company stock worth $5,077,596 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% 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.