J. W. Coons Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

J. W. Coons Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 11.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,936 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the quarter. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $341,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position in NetApp by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its position in NetApp by 232.2% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,705 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.33.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $124.47 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $120.12 and its 200 day moving average is $122.00. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $85.28 and a 1 year high of $135.45. 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.