Victory Capital Management Inc. Buys 406,199 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 55.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,141,117 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 406,199 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned 0.56% of NetApp worth $100,236,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the first quarter worth $29,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its stake in NetApp by 929.6% during the fourth 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 period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted 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 valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at $46,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on NTAP shares. 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. Barclays boosted 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. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a 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 given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $118.86.

NetApp Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $1.12 on Friday, reaching $108.37. 1,742,694 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,910,940. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $21.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $103.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $102.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 value of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 directly owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at $30,208,812.90. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 18,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,697,354 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

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.