NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Palouse Capital Management Inc.

Palouse Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 63.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,179 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 16,826 shares during the quarter. NetApp comprises 2.6% of Palouse Capital Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Palouse Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,793,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th 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. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 5,858.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $64,683,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. TD Cowen cut their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $117.79.

NetApp Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $1.00 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $103.20. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,124,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,938,717. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $94.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. 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 company earned $1.80 EPS. NetApp's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is 36.62%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,498 shares of company stock valued at $2,500,978 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

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.