Cetera Investment Advisers Has $5.91 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 14.3%, holding 67,223 shares valued at approximately $5.9 million.
• Multiple analysts issued revised price targets for NetApp, with JPMorgan raising its target from $115 to $130 and Wells Fargo lowering it from $115 to $100.
• NetApp reported a quarterly EPS of $1.93, exceeding expectations, and disclosed a $0.52 quarterly dividend for shareholders.

Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 14.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 67,223 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 8,406 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings in NetApp were worth $5,905,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter valued at $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 54.9% in 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 during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted 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 valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, May 30th. One investment 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 MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $118.86.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total transaction of $918,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 288,305 shares in the company, valued at $31,160,004.40. This trade represents a 2.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Up 2.1%

Shares of NTAP traded up $2.13 on Monday, hitting $103.23. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,193,766 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,481,493. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $104.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.44.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.80 EPS. The business's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

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.