First Horizon Advisors Inc. Purchases 115 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 58.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $27,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 65.8% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,812,000 after buying an additional 35,172 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after buying an additional 65,644 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after buying an additional 28,609 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in NetApp by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $6,568,000 after buying an additional 1,875 shares during the period. Finally, Savant Capital LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $268,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $109.48 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.29 and a 52-week high of $112.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. The company has a market capitalization of $22.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $90.85.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.83%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group increased their target price on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.60.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.