Edgestream Partners L.P. Purchases 15,326 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 184.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,617 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,326 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,042,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on NTAP. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued 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 price target of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $119.35 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $124.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.40. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a market cap of $24.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.72, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its board has approved 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 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 shares are undervalued.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

NetApp Company Profile

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.