Quadrant Capital Group LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 34.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,116 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $98,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 65.8% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,812,000 after purchasing an additional 35,172 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in NetApp by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,855,000 after buying an additional 65,644 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 24.1% during 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. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after acquiring an additional 1,875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Up 1.4 %

NTAP opened at $115.67 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $66.01 and a fifty-two week high of $116.01. 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 stock has a market cap of $23.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $105.28 and its 200 day moving average is $94.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.02 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup upped their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Argus raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.73.

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.