NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Lifted by Signaturefd LLC

Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 12.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,886 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $166,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 65.8% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,812,000 after buying an additional 35,172 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after acquiring an additional 65,644 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after acquiring an additional 28,609 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after acquiring an additional 1,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $817,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $101.33 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.91 billion, a PE ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $61.54 and a one year high of $112.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $100.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report 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 report on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.60.

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.