Foster & Motley Inc. Grows Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Foster & Motley Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,496 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,283 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,701,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in NetApp by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings 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 worth $156,268,000 after buying an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its position in NetApp by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 31.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $96,873,000 after buying an additional 187,638 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $120.28 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.45 billion, a PE ratio of 22.11, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $121.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.38.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, 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 value of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,123,351 in the last quarter. Company 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.