DGS Capital Management LLC Acquires Shares of 2,537 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

DGS Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,537 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $224,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $242,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in NetApp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 56,377 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,970,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 31,637 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,789,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the period. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $586,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $102.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $21.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28. 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’s 50-day moving average is $98.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $88.10. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.92 and a 12-month high of $112.48.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,871 shares of company stock worth $3,262,645 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.94.

NetApp 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.