Cerity Partners LLC Buys 10,033 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 204.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,952 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,033 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,318,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total value of $1,540,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen increased their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $97.95 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.92 and a 1 year high of $112.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.52. The stock has a market cap of $20.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.26, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

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.