Hancock Whitney Corp Takes Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Hancock Whitney Corp purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 7,190 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $888,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in NetApp by 3.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in NetApp by 12.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 196,952 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 worth $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its position in NetApp by 3.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,361,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $142,879,000 after acquiring an additional 41,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were 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. Insiders sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Up 2.7 %

NetApp stock opened at $129.60 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $77.56 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $122.25 and a 200 day moving average of $122.96. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.79 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

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.