FCF Advisors LLC Makes New $1.26 Million Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

FCF Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 11,993 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,259,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $27,000. ORG Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in NetApp by 82.9% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NTAP traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $127.88. 336,369 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,989,862. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $112.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.32 billion, a PE ratio of 27.51, a PEG ratio of 5.14 and a beta of 1.25. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $130.87.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.10%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

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.