32,867 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Purchased by Hilton Capital Management LLC

Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 32,867 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,059,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 46.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in NetApp by 221.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,731,000 after buying an additional 207,968 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in NetApp by 4.7% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after acquiring an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of NetApp by 132.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,230 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,963,000 after acquiring an additional 16,066 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Up 2.4 %

NetApp stock opened at $122.20 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $121.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $25.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.08 and a twelve month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 40.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,716 shares of company stock worth $2,410,457 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About NetApp

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.