Fortem Financial Group LLC Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Fortem Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 9,306 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 934 shares during the quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,149,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $4,059,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in NetApp by 3.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on NTAP. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.40.

NetApp Stock Down 5.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $121.22 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.62 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $122.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.88. The company has a market capitalization of $24.65 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.