Axecap Investments LLC Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Axecap Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 8,497 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,049,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its position in NetApp by 706.3% during the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at about $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $119.01 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.65, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $123.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $119.85.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.83%.

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.