NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Acquired by Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 15.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 86,709 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 11,831 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $10,268,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 168.8% during the 3rd quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 4,300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $531,000 after acquiring an additional 2,700 shares in the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 5,003 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $618,000 after buying an additional 494 shares during the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,721,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 324,102 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $40,030,000 after acquiring an additional 7,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in NetApp by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,267,357,000 after acquiring an additional 199,384 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $2.32 on Friday, hitting $131.11. The stock had a trading volume of 2,100,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,156,544. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.62 and a one year high of $135.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $122.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $123.72. The company has a market cap of $26.66 billion, a PE ratio of 24.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.40.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value 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 quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp 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.