NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Acquired by Wedge Capital Management L L P NC

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 546,642 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 68,194 shares during the quarter. NetApp makes up approximately 1.1% of Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $63,454,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $45,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third 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 period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,149,531 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.09 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $120.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.86. The stock has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.