Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC Sells 1,500 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC cut its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,500 shares during the period. Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,794,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Monument Capital Management raised its position in shares of NetApp by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Monument Capital Management now owns 19,749 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,293,000 after acquiring an additional 1,087 shares in the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group raised its position in shares of NetApp by 168.1% in the 4th quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 6,856 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $796,000 after acquiring an additional 4,299 shares in the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $604,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in NetApp by 611.3% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 9,105 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after buying an additional 7,825 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 111.8% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 16,799 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,950,000 after buying an additional 8,869 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Susquehanna lowered NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America boosted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock opened at $119.06 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $24.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The business has a 50 day moving average of $120.19 and a 200-day moving average of $121.87. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

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.