HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 11,223 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 37.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 18,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 11,223 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,266,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $278,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in NetApp by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 21,929 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,824,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 57.9% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,252 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $161,000 after acquiring an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth approximately $272,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of NetApp by 3.8% in the second quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 349,663 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $45,037,000 after purchasing an additional 12,856 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $121.95 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $24.79 billion, a PE ratio of 22.42, 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’s 50-day moving average price is $122.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $123.95. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.62 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group increased their target price 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.40.

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.