NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Wedge Capital Management L L P NC

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 546,642 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 68,194 shares during the period. NetApp comprises approximately 1.1% of Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned 0.27% of NetApp worth $63,454,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 28.8% in the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 44,418 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,721,000 after purchasing an additional 9,919 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Alliance purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $344,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 7,555 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $973,000 after acquiring an additional 596 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 20,618 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,648,000 after acquiring an additional 3,291 shares during the period. Finally, Waterloo Capital L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $265,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,149,531 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $122.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $120.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.86. The company has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company 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 MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

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.