Blueshift Asset Management LLC Acquires New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 3,258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 39.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $41,357,000 after buying an additional 111,439 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,489 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $366,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $731,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $7,141,000. Finally, PGGM Investments increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.8% in the first quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 59,661 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,263,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $122.43 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $122.95. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $77.56 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $24.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.24. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on NTAP. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI raised their target price 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, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

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.