Kestra Investment Management LLC Purchases New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,373 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $417,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $336,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. Maverick Capital Ltd. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 134.1% during the third quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 31,793 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,927,000 after acquiring an additional 18,210 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC now owns 10,139 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,252,000 after acquiring an additional 421 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its position in NetApp by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 27,141 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,352,000 after purchasing an additional 4,579 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the 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. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $123.29 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.62 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $25.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.