Parcion Private Wealth LLC Invests $225,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Parcion Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,749 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $225,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in NetApp by 57.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $497,556,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 254.8% in the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in NetApp by 127.0% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after acquiring an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 48.3% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $249,307,000 after acquiring an additional 773,773 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $2.64 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $114.18. 1,730,682 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,921,009. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a market cap of $23.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $114.66.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.63 EPS for the current year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. 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 1.82%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 over the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Citigroup raised their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

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.