Parallel Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $376,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 59.3% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 403 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $119.04 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a PE ratio of 25.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s fifty day moving average is $124.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $116.38. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its 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 business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.