TCW Group Inc. Grows Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

TCW Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 502,438 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 65,223 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc. owned approximately 0.25% of NetApp worth $62,056,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth $45,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays lifted 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. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 5.0 %

NTAP stock opened at $121.22 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $122.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $123.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.62 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business 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%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

NetApp 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.