Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC Buys New Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,200 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $604,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 611.3% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 9,105 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,148,000 after buying an additional 7,825 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 111.8% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 16,799 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,950,000 after buying an additional 8,869 shares in the last quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 47.0% during the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 735 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $85,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 549,674 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $63,806,000 after buying an additional 11,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 27.4% during the fourth quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 639,518 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $74,235,000 after buying an additional 137,430 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Susquehanna cut NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities increased their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $137.33.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $124.55. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,496,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,383,597. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.23. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $120.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $121.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 451 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.