Pacer Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 17.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,322 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,344 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,591,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter worth about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $122.10 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The business’s 50 day moving average is $121.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.37. The company has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS 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 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” 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 stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

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.