Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 6,650 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $586,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $101.81 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. The company has a market capitalization of $21.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.14, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $97.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.72. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $60.92 and a fifty-two week high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.02 earnings per share. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. 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 871 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 31,871 shares of company stock worth $3,262,645 over the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.94.

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.