NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Boosted by Kestra Investment Management LLC

Kestra Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 96.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,628 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,255 shares during the quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after buying an additional 7,318 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in NetApp by 9.2% in the 4th 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. Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 232.2% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $831,000 after buying an additional 4,705 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $120.02 and a 200-day moving average of $121.81. The company has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total value of $54,579.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,395,024.75. This represents a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,403 shares of company stock worth $6,248,501 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Barclays increased 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. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.53.

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.