UMB Bank n.a. Sells 260 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

UMB Bank n.a. lessened its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 28.9% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 640 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 260 shares during the quarter. UMB Bank n.a.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $56,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 5,858.0% during the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,942,000 after acquiring an additional 880,406 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $64,683,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Wall Street Zen lowered NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson purchased 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at approximately $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,498 shares of company stock valued at $2,500,978 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 2.4%

NetApp stock opened at $100.49 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $93.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.63. The stock has a market cap of $20.13 billion, a PE ratio of 18.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.80 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

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.