Golden State Wealth Management LLC Makes New $35,000 Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $35,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in NetApp by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares during the period. Unigestion Holding SA grew its stake in NetApp by 926.1% in the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $35,022,000 after acquiring an additional 256,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its position in shares of NetApp by 546.8% during the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 289,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $33,606,000 after acquiring an additional 244,746 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $119.56 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $120.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.02. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $24.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday. Northland Securities increased their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,110 shares of company stock valued at $7,632,601 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.