NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 19.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,479 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,405 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $748,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,299,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $174,449,000 after purchasing an additional 47,040 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in NetApp by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,270,712 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $112,026,000 after purchasing an additional 6,512 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in NetApp by 31.7% during the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $84,202,000 after purchasing an additional 266,812 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 25.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 899,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $68,228,000 after purchasing an additional 179,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $74,257,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $107.95 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $62.29 and a 1-year high of $112.48. The firm has a market cap of $22.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $102.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $90.62.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.85%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.