NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Position Boosted by Cerity Partners LLC

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,378 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,520 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $6,099,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake 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 purchasing an additional 111,439 shares during the last quarter. 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 buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position 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 valued at $366,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in NetApp by 0.8% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 346,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,382,000 after acquiring an additional 2,790 shares during the period. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in NetApp by 6,290.7% in the first quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 9,650 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,013,000 after acquiring an additional 9,499 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.43 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $77.56 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $25.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $122.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

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.