NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Pinnacle Associates Ltd.

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $116.10 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $121.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $120.74. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $73.63 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.32 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. NetApp’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

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.