Human Investing LLC Acquires Shares of 923 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Human Investing LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 923 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $107,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares during the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA grew its position in shares of NetApp by 926.1% in the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after buying an additional 256,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in shares of NetApp by 546.8% in the 4th quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 289,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,606,000 after buying an additional 244,746 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,403 shares of company stock worth $6,248,501 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1 %

NTAP stock opened at $119.06 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.21 billion, a PE ratio of 21.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a fifty day moving average of $120.19 and a 200-day moving average of $121.87.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

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.