Signet Financial Management LLC Acquires 147 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Signet Financial Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,180 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $754,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Mission Wealth Management LP boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 3,639 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $321,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position 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 buying an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 41,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,633,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 16,283 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,436,000 after buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 0.5 %

NTAP opened at $129.03 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $130.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The company has a market cap of $26.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $114.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $100.82.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. Analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.10%.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction 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 approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 20,205 shares of company stock worth $2,345,409 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.