Freedom Investment Management Inc. Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,656 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Robbins Farley acquired a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were 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 directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $122.64 on Monday. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.62 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $24.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.54, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current 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. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price 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. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.40.

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.