Harfst & Associates Inc. Purchases Shares of 7,234 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Harfst & Associates Inc. has acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. by purchasing 7,234 shares valued at approximately $635,000 during the first quarter.
• Several hedge funds increased their holdings in NetApp, with notable boosts from Assenagon Asset Management S.A. (up 39.6%) and Achmea Investment Management B.V. (up 55.8%) during the same period.
• NetApp reported earnings of $1.93 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share with a yield of 1.9%.

Harfst & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,234 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $635,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 375.0% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the period. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $119.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total transaction of $105,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,462,280.90. The trade was a 4.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,302 shares of company stock worth $2,026,379 in the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.77 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $108.79. 2,066,158 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,473,976. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25. The company has a market cap of $21.80 billion, a PE ratio of 19.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $105.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $100.83. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.80 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

NetApp Company 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.