Oak Thistle LLC Acquires Shares of 3,582 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Oak Thistle LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,582 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $416,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $2.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $122.09. 1,821,302 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,380,146. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $120.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $122.94. 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 firm has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,149,531 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays upped their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $139.20.

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.