Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Lowers Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,243 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 189 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $198,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $586,000. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. boosted its position in NetApp by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 102,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $9,010,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,111,000. Graypoint LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $210,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 14,650.0% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $102.37 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $98.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $87.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.92 and a 1-year high of $112.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.27, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. 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 (DPR) is presently 45.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 31,871 shares of company stock valued at $3,262,645. Corporate insiders own 0.37% 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.