NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Versant Capital Management Inc

Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 25.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 765 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 154 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in NetApp were worth $89,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $116.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $121.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $123.58. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.62 and a 52-week high of $135.45. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

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.