Empirical Finance LLC Purchases 136 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

by · The Cerbat Gem

Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP – Free Report) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,383 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $912,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management lifted its holdings in NetApp by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $290,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $117.21 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $76.41 and a one year high of $135.01. The company’s 50-day moving average is $121.17 and its 200 day moving average is $121.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 40.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on NetApp

About NetApp

(Free Report)

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.

See Also

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