Federated Hermes Inc. Acquires 26,708 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 312.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,269 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 26,708 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,109,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of NetApp by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,299,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $174,449,000 after buying an additional 47,040 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,264,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $95,927,000 after buying an additional 55,353 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $84,202,000 after buying an additional 266,812 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 25.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 899,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $68,228,000 after buying an additional 179,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 812,588 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,659,000 after buying an additional 58,131 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.60.

NetApp Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $101.33 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $100.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $89.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.54 and a fifty-two week high of $112.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.91 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.28.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The firm 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 company earned $1.02 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.