NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT) EVP John Downing Sells 3,000 Shares of Stock

NetScout Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTCT) EVP John Downing sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.25, for a total value of $72,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 130,352 shares in the company, valued at $3,161,036. This trade represents a 2.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

NetScout Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTCT opened at $24.18 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $22.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $21.59. NetScout Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $17.10 and a 12 month high of $27.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 1.78. The company has a market capitalization of $1.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.13 and a beta of 0.60.

NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The technology company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.04. NetScout Systems had a negative net margin of 50.90% and a positive return on equity of 6.76%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetScout Systems, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on NTCT. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on NetScout Systems from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised NetScout Systems from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetScout Systems by 4.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,929,551 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,975,000 after acquiring an additional 81,154 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in NetScout Systems by 32.0% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 495,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,766,000 after purchasing an additional 120,000 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in NetScout Systems by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,053,606 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $22,916,000 after purchasing an additional 207,171 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in NetScout Systems by 28.4% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 163,272 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,551,000 after purchasing an additional 36,075 shares during the period. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in NetScout Systems during the 3rd quarter worth $1,783,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

About NetScout Systems

NetScout Systems, Inc provides service assurance and cybersecurity solutions for protect digital business services against disruptions in the United States, Europe, Asia, and internationally. The company offers nGeniusONE management software that enables customers to predict, preempt, and resolve network and service delivery problems, as well as facilitate the optimization and capacity planning of their network infrastructures; and specialized platforms and analytic modules that enable its customers to analyze and troubleshoot traffic in radio access and Wi-Fi networks.