Advisory Alpha LLC Purchases Shares of 2,046 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Advisory Alpha LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 2,046 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 4,247 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $547,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 38,431 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,950,000 after purchasing an additional 2,349 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 112.5% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,347 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $171,000 after acquiring an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 57.4% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 7,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,017,000 after acquiring an additional 2,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 18.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 344,820 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $44,309,000 after acquiring an additional 53,647 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $126.30 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $25.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.22, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50 day moving average is $121.07 and its 200 day moving average is $122.69. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Company 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.