4,337 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Bought by Private Advisor Group LLC

Key Points

• Private Advisor Group LLC has acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc., purchasing 4,337 shares valued at approximately $381,000 in the first quarter of the year.
• The company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the recent quarter, exceeding the consensus estimate of $1.90, and revenue growth of 3.8% year-over-year.
• NetApp's recent dividend of $0.52 per share represents an annualized dividend yield of 2.0%, with a payout ratio of 36.62%.

Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 4,337 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $381,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after acquiring an additional 529,471 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in NetApp by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,653,000 after acquiring an additional 220,393 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in NetApp by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $327,848,000 after acquiring an additional 550,607 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in NetApp by 5.6% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,208,812.90. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the firm'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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Down 2.9%

NetApp stock traded down $3.03 on Friday, hitting $101.10. 1,414,970 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,410,739. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $20.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $104.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.10.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group cut their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. One investment 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $118.86.

NetApp 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.