Spire Wealth Management Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Spire Wealth Management increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 13.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $51,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $52,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $122.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $120.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.15. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 64,110 shares of company stock worth $7,632,601 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About NetApp

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.