Wealthstar Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Wealthstar Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 10,051 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,167,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised 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 worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in NetApp by 3.5% during the third quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 4.5% in the third 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 period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 2.4% in the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 5,108 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $631,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,110 shares of company stock worth $7,632,601 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.91 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $120.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.07. 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 earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Northland Securities increased their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp 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.