3,258 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Bought by Blueshift Asset Management LLC

Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in NetApp by 39.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $41,357,000 after purchasing an additional 111,439 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 8.4% during the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,489 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $366,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $731,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth $7,141,000. Finally, PGGM Investments grew its stake in NetApp by 1.8% during the first quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 59,661 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,263,000 after acquiring an additional 1,054 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 5.5 %

NTAP opened at $122.43 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $24.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $122.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

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. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.00.

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.