Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Increases Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1,376.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 124,661 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 116,219 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned about 0.06% of NetApp worth $13,283,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,375,363,000 after buying an additional 597,956 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,096,679 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $623,383,000 after buying an additional 72,223 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 18.8% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,546,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $311,529,000 after buying an additional 560,218 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in NetApp by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $308,107,000 after buying an additional 384,362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its stake in NetApp by 11.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,179,710 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $183,209,000 after buying an additional 230,793 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Bank of America lifted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 price target on NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $124.07.

NetApp Stock Down 1.1%

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $118.72 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $114.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $102.68. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 36.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total value of $94,936.73. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total value of $105,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 23,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,462,280.90. The trade was a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,529 shares of company stock worth $3,350,714 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company 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.