Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Has $1.57 Million Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 111.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,666 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,565,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in NetApp by 3.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $223,806,000 after purchasing an additional 196,952 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 59.6% in 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. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. 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 note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $118.07 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 stock has a market capitalization of $24.18 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $121.08 and a 200-day moving average of $121.74. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $76.41 and a 12 month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.62%.

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.