Principal Securities Inc. Boosts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Principal Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 111.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 16,799 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,869 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,950,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 22.3% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the third quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $340,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,448 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $796,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, 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 value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.53.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $120.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

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 return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

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.