Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC Purchases Shares of 4,132 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 127.0% in 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. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 46.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $473,000. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $802,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 189.2% in the 4th quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 263,103 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,195,000 after acquiring an additional 172,132 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $117.86 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a market capitalization of $24.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $124.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $116.29.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

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.