Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE Increases Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 85.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,232 shares during the quarter. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE’s holdings in NetApp were worth $866,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp boosted its stake in NetApp by 706.3% during the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. UBS Group upped their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP traded up $1.03 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $120.44. 49,155 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,818,768. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $123.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $120.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.63%.

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.