Portfolio Design Labs LLC Raises Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Portfolio Design Labs LLC boosted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 28.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,725 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,608 shares during the period. Portfolio Design Labs LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,406,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $566,000. CWM LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 9.9% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,718 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,324,000 after buying an additional 965 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 30.4% during the third quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $766,000 after purchasing an additional 1,444 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 4,225.0% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,249 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 2,197 shares during the period. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $75,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $119.56 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $24.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.98, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % 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 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

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.