Signet Financial Management LLC Reduces Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Signet Financial Management LLC lessened its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 311 shares during the quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $620,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 41,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,633,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its stake in NetApp by 40.4% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 490 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,187 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,279 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.2 %

NTAP opened at $102.54 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $88.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $60.92 and a one year high of $112.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,871 shares of company stock valued at $3,262,645. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. 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 note on Friday, March 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.94.

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.