Cwm LLC Buys 508 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cwm LLC raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) by 14.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,049 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 508 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $250,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 70.3% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $691,339,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439,053 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 114.3% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,814,854 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $118,401,000 after purchasing an additional 967,832 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 233.2% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 648,847 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $42,331,000 after purchasing an additional 454,119 shares during the period. Mariner LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 176.0% in the 1st quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 646,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $53,669,000 after purchasing an additional 412,291 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,823,258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,143,331,000 after purchasing an additional 294,399 shares during the period. 87.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.29, for a total transaction of $293,805.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,226 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,395,865.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.29, for a total transaction of $293,805.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,226 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,395,865.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Carrie Palin sold 2,707 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total value of $174,060.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,707 shares of company stock valued at $748,890 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 7th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 30th. Northland Securities dropped their price target on NetApp from $101.00 to $99.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 30th. Cowen dropped their price target on NetApp from $93.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 30th. Finally, Wedbush dropped their price target on NetApp from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.95.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock opened at $64.66 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.94 billion, a PE ratio of 9.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.99. The business has a 50 day moving average of $65.85 and a 200-day moving average of $67.51. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $58.08 and a 12-month high of $96.82.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 115.30% and a net margin of 22.52%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.37 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 6th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.26%.

NetApp Company Profile

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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, NetApp ElementOS software, and NetApp SANtricity software; and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp FlexPod, NetApp E/EF series, NetApp StorageGRID, and NetApp SolidFire.