Park Avenue Securities LLC Acquires 8,466 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 180.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 13,168 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,466 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,529,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $859,000. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $416,000. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. now owns 22,723 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,638,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 58.8% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,397 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $162,000 after purchasing an additional 517 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cooper Financial Group acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $207,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,149,531 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.09 on Friday. 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 market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $120.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.82. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company 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%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. Equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid 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 dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus 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.