KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC Grows Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,368 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,537 shares during the period. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,248,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in 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 worth $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter worth $4,059,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in NetApp by 202.1% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 266,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,886,000 after purchasing an additional 178,135 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $119.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $24.39 billion, a PE ratio of 22.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $120.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.94. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,149,531 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup increased their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities raised their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.