Ritholtz Wealth Management Acquires 1,444 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 30.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,444 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $766,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in NetApp by 3.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 254.8% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 26.5% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $225,532,000 after buying an additional 450,263 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $126.86 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $123.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $119.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.34, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

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.