Meridian Wealth Management LLC Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,676 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $331,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in NetApp by 39.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $41,357,000 after buying an additional 111,439 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 2,892 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.4% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,489 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $366,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 346,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,382,000 after purchasing an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 6,290.7% in the 1st quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 9,650 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,013,000 after purchasing an additional 9,499 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $126.18 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.81. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $25.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24. 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 (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 the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 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. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.