Empowered Funds LLC Takes $18.44 Million Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 119,168 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $18,442,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 68.7% during the fourth quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.0% in the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $362,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in NetApp by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 12,559 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,345,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 833 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.9%

NTAP stock opened at $187.02 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $93.69 and a one year high of $209.06. The firm has a market cap of $36.70 billion, a PE ratio of 29.41, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $175.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $138.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The company’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total transaction of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. This represents a 51.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total value of $38,495.25. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $186,488.10. This represents a 17.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 55,297 shares of company stock valued at $8,758,016 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America boosted their target price on NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded NetApp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Evercore set a $210.00 price target on NetApp in a report on Monday. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price objective on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $179.77.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.