NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Empirical Asset Management LLC

Empirical Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth $109,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $75,000. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 204.4% in the 3rd quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 36,744 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,538,000 after acquiring an additional 24,675 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4,225.0% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,249 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 2,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 78.2% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 36,439 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,501,000 after acquiring an additional 15,995 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $126.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $26.11 billion, a PE ratio of 27.34, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $123.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $119.02. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America increased their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Company 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.