Everence Capital Management Inc. Purchases 1,960 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Everence Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 33.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,760 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,960 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $901,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,864 shares of company stock valued at $6,185,830. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $116.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.62 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $23.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.50, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s fifty day moving average is $121.10 and its 200-day moving average is $123.58.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

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.