NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Private Advisor Group LLC

Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,166 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 642 shares during the quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp grew its position in NetApp by 706.3% in the first 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 during the period. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in NetApp in the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $116.40 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $23.84 billion, a PE ratio of 22.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $121.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.98. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $74.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America increased their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group increased their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

NetApp 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.