SG Americas Securities LLC Raises Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 310.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 24,771 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 18,733 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $2,176,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in NetApp by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 120.7% in the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,998,000 after buying an additional 37,684 shares during the period. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,151,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after buying an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $117.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 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 ninety days, insiders sold 28,498 shares of company stock valued at $2,500,978. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.32 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $102.88. 812,468 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,934,590. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $94.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.37. 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 $20.61 billion, a PE ratio of 18.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.42.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during 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%. NetApp'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 analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.