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

Csenge Advisory Group increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 168.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,856 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,299 shares during the quarter. Csenge Advisory Group’s holdings in NetApp were worth $796,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 20.9% during 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. lifted its position in NetApp by 9.2% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 113,360 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the third quarter valued at $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 232.2% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after buying an additional 4,705 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. 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. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.53.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1 %

NTAP stock opened at $119.06 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $24.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.89, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $120.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $121.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted 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. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. 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 1.75%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total value of $54,579.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,395,024.75. This represents a 3.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501. 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.