23,342 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Purchased by Hennessy Advisors Inc.

Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 23,342 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,050,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in NetApp by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,485,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management boosted its stake in NetApp by 120.7% during the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $7,998,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in NetApp by 39.6% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 36,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,250,000 after purchasing an additional 10,494 shares during the period. Finally, Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $5,151,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.45 on Thursday, reaching $102.75. 1,859,648 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,935,873. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.59 billion, a PE ratio of 18.09, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $94.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $117.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Anders Gustafsson bought 2,800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,998 shares of company stock valued at $3,366,108. Corporate 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.