Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC Raises Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 211 shares during the quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $292,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 41,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,633,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 40.4% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 490 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,187 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $105,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 82.9% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,279 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $554,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $102.37 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $98.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.13 billion, a PE ratio of 23.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.92 and a 1-year high of $112.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 31,871 shares of company stock worth $3,262,645 in the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.94.

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.