NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Benjamin Edwards Inc.

Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,900 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,177,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 254.8% in the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after acquiring an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 48.3% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $249,307,000 after acquiring an additional 773,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,771,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $156,183,000 after acquiring an additional 507,317 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,452 shares of company stock worth $4,970,628 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Argus lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $120.08 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $123.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.43. The firm has a market cap of $24.71 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during 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 revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. 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.