Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Takes Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 226 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $52,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities raised their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 64,110 shares of company stock valued at $7,632,601. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.91 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.15. The firm has a market cap of $24.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.59, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

NetApp Company 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.