CWA Asset Management Group LLC Buys Shares of 6,034 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Posted by Max Byerly on Mar 19th, 2023

CWA Asset Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 6,034 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $362,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 70.3% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $691,339,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439,053 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 114.3% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,814,854 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $118,401,000 after acquiring an additional 967,832 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 123.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,004,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $62,098,000 after acquiring an additional 553,689 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 233.2% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 648,847 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $42,331,000 after acquiring an additional 454,119 shares during the period. Finally, Mariner LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 176.0% in the 1st quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 646,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $53,669,000 after purchasing an additional 412,291 shares in the last quarter. 87.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Raymond James dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $75.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Finally, Susquehanna Bancshares dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $75.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.09, for a total transaction of $1,081,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 44,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,774.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.09, for a total transaction of $1,081,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 44,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,693,774.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 2,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $145,125.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 154,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,979,827. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 31,500 shares of company stock valued at $1,951,740. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock opened at $61.47 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17. The company has a market capitalization of $13.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.19. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $58.08 and a 12 month high of $90.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $65.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.08.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 19.93% and a return on equity of 103.19%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.42%.

NetApp Company Profile

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NetApp, Inc provides software, systems, and services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. The company offers cloud data services, including NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for AWS, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, NetApp Cloud Sync, NetApp Cloud Secure, NetApp Cloud Tiering, NetApp SaaS Backup, NetApp Kubernetes Service, and NetApp Cloud Insights.