Sovereign s Capital Management LLC Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sovereign s Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,895 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $452,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $438,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, Director Anders Gustafsson purchased 2,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were bought at an average price of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $84.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $121.40.

NetApp Stock Up 0.2%

NTAP traded up $0.21 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $99.78. 1,520,228 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,916,090. The company has a market cap of $20.30 billion, a PE ratio of 18.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $89.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $108.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

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.