Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.3% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $372,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 46.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 60.5% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 527,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $55,355,000 after acquiring an additional 198,627 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 221.9% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,731,000 after acquiring an additional 207,968 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in NetApp by 63.9% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 343,218 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,025,000 after purchasing an additional 133,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in NetApp by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,585 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $586,000 after purchasing an additional 538 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.7 %

NTAP opened at $121.93 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $76.41 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The business has a 50-day moving average of $121.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.65 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp 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.