Friedenthal Financial Invests $50,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 389 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 58.7% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its position in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on NTAP. TD Cowen lifted their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.38.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $125.87 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $25.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.13, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The company’s 50 day moving average is $126.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.20 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.