NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Pacer Advisors Inc.

Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 17.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,322 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,344 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,591,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. KBC Group NV lifted its position in NetApp by 276.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 31.2% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,941 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $487,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $558,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 3,876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $450,000 after purchasing an additional 508 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.10 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.37. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.