Ascent Group LLC Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ascent Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 13,089 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,617,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 59.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $48,074,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 38.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $123.29 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $122.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $123.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.62 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $25.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.66, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is 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.