Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. Purchases New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,500 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $922,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in NetApp by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,653,000 after purchasing an additional 220,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its position in NetApp by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $335,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,919 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded up $1.12 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $108.37. 1,742,694 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,913,713. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.71 billion, a PE ratio of 19.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $103.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The firm's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wedbush reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. UBS Group reduced their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $118.86.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,697,354 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

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.