abrdn plc Cuts Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

abrdn plc lowered its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 106,482 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 787 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in NetApp were worth $13,098,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its position in shares of NetApp by 706.3% in the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $116.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $23.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $73.63 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $121.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $120.47.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 40.62%.

About NetApp

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.