Palouse Capital Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Palouse Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 31,025 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,303 shares during the period. NetApp comprises 1.9% of Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,735,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 70.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $691,339,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439,053 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $138,383,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 291.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,040,846 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $65,428,000 after purchasing an additional 775,136 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 83.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,577,675 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $100,735,000 after purchasing an additional 716,604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 689.7% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,026,000 after purchasing an additional 702,391 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at $26,496,330.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wedbush boosted their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.94.

NetApp Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $2.19 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $97.95. 1,692,487 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,881,377. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. The company has a market cap of $20.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $98.99 and a 200-day moving average of $88.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.92 and a 12 month high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

NetApp Company 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.