Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 111.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,673 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 6,666 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $1,565,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 48.3% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $249,307,000 after purchasing an additional 773,773 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $211,637,000 after buying an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $56,313,000. APG Asset Management US Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $48,074,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 796.4% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 237,902 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $24,973,000 after acquiring an additional 211,363 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7 %

NTAP traded down $0.86 on Friday, hitting $117.21. 1,973,045 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,807,237. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $121.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $76.41 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The company has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. Corporate insiders own 0.47% 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.