NBC Securities Inc. Boosts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,067 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 547 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $996,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Occidental Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.8% in the third quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 38,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,760,000 after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.7% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,001 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,211,000 after buying an additional 2,073 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC now owns 2,913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $360,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $109,000. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $75,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $125.88 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01. The firm has a market cap of $25.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.13, a PEG ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day moving average of $123.61 and a 200 day moving average of $119.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp 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.