Mather Group LLC. Buys 1,419 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 42.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,775 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares during the quarter. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in NetApp by 65.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,812,000 after buying an additional 35,172 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in NetApp by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after purchasing an additional 65,644 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after acquiring an additional 28,609 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 2.2% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,875 shares during the period. Finally, Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth about $817,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $100.99 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $20.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $61.54 and a 1 year high of $112.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $101.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $89.91.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

About NetApp

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.