Caprock Group LLC Acquires 1,530 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Caprock Group LLC raised its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 19.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,348 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,530 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,155,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in NetApp by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 4.3% in the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $126.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $121.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.39. The stock has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $77.46 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

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.