Avanza Fonder AB Invests $1.98 Million in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 17,029 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,977,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 19,368 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,248,000 after buying an additional 1,537 shares in the last quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 40,524 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,704,000 after acquiring an additional 1,984 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its stake in NetApp by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,407 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $744,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares during the period. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $419,000. Finally, Peak Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Peak Financial Advisors LLC now owns 23,936 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,778,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $122.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.80 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $120.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.82. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders 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 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,149,531. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities upped their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.