Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV Raises Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,469 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 644 shares during the period. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,568,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $130.26 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $116.61 and a 200-day moving average of $102.04. The company has a market capitalization of $26.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.07, a PEG ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $131.02. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

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

NetApp declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Argus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.81.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the sale, 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 this link. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 42,205 shares of company stock valued at $5,193,529 in the last quarter. 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.