NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Ritholtz Wealth Management

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,407 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $744,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $48,074,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after purchasing an additional 342,415 shares during the period. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA increased its position in shares of NetApp by 926.1% during the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after purchasing an additional 256,028 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 43,110 shares of company stock worth $5,077,596 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $122.09 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.80 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $120.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.76.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Northland Securities raised their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen raised their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.