Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Purchases 1,263 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 63.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,261 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,263 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $274,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its position in NetApp by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 41,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,633,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank increased its position in NetApp by 40.4% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 490 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 141 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,187 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 149 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on NTAP. Evercore ISI raised their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush raised their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. TD Cowen raised their price target on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $99.43 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $99.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $89.01. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.92 and a 12 month high of $112.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.74, a PEG ratio of 2.19 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.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period 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. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Insider Activity

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

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.