NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC Acquires 356 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.3% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,134 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the period. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $627,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its stake in NetApp by 929.6% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $100.49 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $93.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.52. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 28,498 shares of company stock worth $2,500,978. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.