Park Avenue Securities LLC Increases Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,948 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 459 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $519,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 65.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 35,172 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of NetApp by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,855,000 after acquiring an additional 65,644 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $13,005,000 after acquiring an additional 28,609 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after acquiring an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $128.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.51 billion, a PE ratio of 27.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $130.87. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $115.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $101.29.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.10%.

NetApp announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 20,205 shares of company stock worth $2,345,409. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.