Cetera Investment Advisers Raises Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 28.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,190 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 7,960 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers' holdings in NetApp were worth $4,661,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 46.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,754,000 after acquiring an additional 5,273 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter worth $473,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its position in NetApp by 189.2% during the fourth quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 263,103 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $23,195,000 after buying an additional 172,132 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in NetApp by 60.5% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 527,064 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $55,355,000 after buying an additional 198,627 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in NetApp by 221.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,731,000 after buying an additional 207,968 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $0.59 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $127.14. The company had a trading volume of 478,911 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,862,872. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $122.81 and a 200-day moving average of $118.42. The company has a market capitalization of $26.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.27, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business's revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $129.06.

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.