Twin Capital Management Inc. Sells 168 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Twin Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 168 shares during the quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $459,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in NetApp by 65.8% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,812,000 after purchasing an additional 35,172 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in NetApp by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,855,000 after purchasing an additional 65,644 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $13,005,000 after purchasing an additional 28,609 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in NetApp by 2.2% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth $1,171,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 2.2 %

NetApp stock opened at $97.95 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $60.92 and a one year high of $112.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s fifty day moving average is $98.99 and its 200 day moving average is $88.42.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total value of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Argus raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. TD Cowen increased their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup increased their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. UBS Group increased their target price on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.