Quest Partners LLC Raises Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 24.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,461 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,864 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,169,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in NetApp by 0.6% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 92,817 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $11,463,000 after purchasing an additional 592 shares during the period. Gladius Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $319,000. Seizert Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.0% during the third quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 456,444 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $56,375,000 after buying an additional 8,944 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 66.0% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 72,137 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $8,910,000 after buying an additional 28,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.9% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 7,383 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $912,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.20 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.08 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $121.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $122.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $25.02 billion, a PE ratio of 23.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,017,276. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,716 shares of company stock worth $2,410,457 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.