Vest Financial LLC Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Vest Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 61.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 23,525 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,975 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,731,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Conning Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 6,839 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $794,000 after buying an additional 758 shares during the period. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Tobam lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 61.1% in the 4th quarter. Tobam now owns 1,284 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 487 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 39,746 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,614,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268 shares during the period. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.91 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $120.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.12. The firm has a market cap of $24.99 billion, a PE ratio of 22.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-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.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 64,110 shares of company stock worth $7,632,601 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.