4,132 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Acquired by Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC

Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in NetApp by 127.0% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after buying an additional 950,204 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter worth $473,000. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $802,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 189.2% in the 4th quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 263,103 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,195,000 after purchasing an additional 172,132 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $117.86 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $124.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.29. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The company has a market cap of $24.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.40, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

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.