Richardson Financial Services Inc. Acquires New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 445 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $52,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 22.3% in the fourth 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 during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,123,351 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.10 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.80 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $121.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.24. The company has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a PE 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 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current 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 issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.