Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Raises Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.6% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 92,817 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 592 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in NetApp were worth $11,463,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 17.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in NetApp by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 59.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $126.75 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $77.46 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $121.77 and its 200 day moving average is $122.39. The company has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.76, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 (DPR) is presently 40.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.