Financial Advisors Network Inc. Purchases Shares of 37,138 NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Financial Advisors Network Inc. acquired 37,138 shares of NetApp, Inc., totaling approximately $3.26 million in value during the first quarter.
• Various institutional investors have also increased their stakes in NetApp, with 92.17% of shares currently held by hedge funds and other institutions.
• Analysts have mixed ratings for NetApp, with a consensus target price of $119.21 and several firms adjusting their price targets between $100.00 to $130.00.

Financial Advisors Network Inc. bought a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 37,138 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,262,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $458,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $1,063,000. Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,171 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 515 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,744,058 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $202,450,000 after buying an additional 135,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of NetApp by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,971,899 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $228,907,000 after purchasing an additional 103,698 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on NTAP. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $119.21.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $108.79 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $105.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $100.68. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year 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.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The business 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 business's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total value of $105,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,251 shares in the company, valued at $2,462,280.90. This represents a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,302 shares of company stock valued at $2,026,379 over the last ninety days. 0.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.

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