NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Trimmed by Meritage Portfolio Management

Meritage Portfolio Management trimmed its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,889 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 175 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,076,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 19.2% during the 4th quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,494 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $484,000 after purchasing an additional 884 shares in the last quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 3,431 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $302,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 65,476 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,772,000 after buying an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 63.2% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 3,261 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $274,000 after acquiring an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $58,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Evercore ISI upped their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.60.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $0.88 on Thursday, reaching $100.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,551,750 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,867,572. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $99.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $89.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.92 and a 1 year high of $112.48. The company has a market capitalization of $20.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.28.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced 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. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. 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.