Sanctuary Advisors LLC Increases Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 73.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 7,608 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,213 shares during the quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $931,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd 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. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $118.45 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $122.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $124.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $24.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,549 shares of company stock valued at $3,864,316 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group raised their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Bank of America raised their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.