MQS Management LLC Makes New $295,000 Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 2,388 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $295,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bleakley Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 5.3% during the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 8,115 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $852,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 14.2% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 267,040 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,031,000 after acquiring an additional 33,279 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL increased its holdings in NetApp by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 19,411 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,038,000 after acquiring an additional 1,990 shares during the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in NetApp by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,585 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $586,000 after acquiring an additional 538 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $12,546,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $118.07 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $121.08 and a 200 day moving average of $121.74. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.41 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.18 billion, a PE ratio of 23.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.24.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.