Principal Securities Inc. Increases Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Principal Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 111.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 16,799 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,869 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,950,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after buying an additional 7,318 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after buying an additional 113,360 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 232.2% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after buying an additional 4,705 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 1.2 %

NetApp stock opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $120.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.81.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 last year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

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.