Geneos Wealth Management Inc. Buys 100 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 22.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 100 shares during the quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $64,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. DGS Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $558,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 3,876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $450,000 after buying an additional 508 shares during the period. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH grew its position in shares of NetApp by 39.2% during the 4th quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 51,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,960,000 after buying an additional 14,417 shares in the last quarter. True North Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $727,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 13,940 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,618,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 0.3 %

NTAP stock opened at $122.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $121.22 and a 200 day moving average of $122.37.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. 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 prior year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given 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 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.