FORA Capital LLC Acquires Shares of 45,966 NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• FORA Capital LLC acquired 45,966 shares of NetApp, Inc. valued at approximately $4,038,000, according to their recent SEC filing.
• Institutional investors own 92.17% of NetApp's stock, highlighting significant institutional interest in the company.
• NetApp reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, and indicated a revenue growth of 3.8% year-over-year.

FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 45,966 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,038,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 4,687.6% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,068,694 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $93,874,000 after buying an additional 1,046,372 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 5,858.0% during the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $103,942,000 after buying an additional 880,406 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,375,363,000 after buying an additional 597,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $327,848,000 after purchasing an additional 550,607 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $4.43 during trading on Friday, hitting $112.79. 2,552,025 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,902,549. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $22.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.44. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $106.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.31.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.24% and a net margin of 17.77%.The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. NetApp's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group raised their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $124.07.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.85, for a total value of $925,225.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 283,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,879,438.80. This represents a 2.91% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 27,802 shares of company stock valued at $2,951,604. 0.28% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.