Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Has $5.76 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 38.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 54,850 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,200 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,758,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 58.7% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Argus boosted their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America boosted their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $130.24 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $131.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $115.36 and a 200-day moving average of $101.46.

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

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.10%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,205 shares of company stock valued at $2,345,409 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.