EP Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 13,114 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 13,114 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,620,000.

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

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Evercore ISI upped their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Northland Securities upped their price objective 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. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.40.

NetApp Stock Down 5.0 %

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $6.38 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $121.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,392,885 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,857,527. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $122.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.88. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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