Meritage Portfolio Management Has $8.05 Million Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Meritage Portfolio Management lifted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 129.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 69,381 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,097 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,054,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after buying an additional 7,318 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in NetApp by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after acquiring an additional 113,360 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 232.2% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $831,000 after acquiring an additional 4,705 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock opened at $121.42 on Wednesday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $24.69 billion, a PE ratio of 22.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $120.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.13.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lifted their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. 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. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.