Federated Hermes Inc. Purchases 541,837 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Federated Hermes Inc. significantly increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 97.7%, acquiring over 541,000 additional shares, bringing its total ownership to approximately $96.3 million.
• CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock, decreasing his position by 2.78%, and insiders overall sold shares valued at nearly $1.92 million in the last three months.
• Despite mixed analyst ratings, NetApp's recent earnings report showed a growth in revenue of 3.8% year-over-year, and the company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share.

Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 97.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,096,236 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 541,837 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.54% of NetApp worth $96,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Utah Retirement Systems boosted its holdings in NetApp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 34,152 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,964,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,197 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $371,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased 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 valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hohimer Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC now owns 29,694 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,608,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total transaction of $106,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 24,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,590,976.84. The trade was a 3.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 18,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,920,479. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on NTAP. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group cut their price target 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. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $118.86.

NetApp Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of NTAP stock traded down $3.03 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.10. 1,414,970 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,410,739. 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 stock has a market cap of $20.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.80, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $104.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $102.21.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. NetApp's 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.