Blueshift Asset Management LLC Buys New Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired 4,294 shares of NetApp, Inc., valued at approximately $377,000, during the 1st quarter as reported in its 13F filing.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds now hold 92.17% of NetApp's stock, reflecting significant investor confidence in the company.
• NetApp reported $1.93 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations and indicating a 3.8% year-over-year revenue growth.

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 4,294 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $377,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 54.9% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. UBS Group cut their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Evercore ISI cut their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. 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 report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $118.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total value of $106,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 24,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,590,976.84. This trade represents a 3.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479 over the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.36 on Tuesday, hitting $102.87. The company had a trading volume of 65,853 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,050,805. The business has a 50 day moving average of $104.33 and a 200 day moving average of $101.73. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $20.61 billion, a PE ratio of 18.11, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.44. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

About NetApp

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.