Capital Insight Partners LLC Purchases 1,200 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Capital Insight Partners LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 17.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. Capital Insight Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $961,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Narus Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Narus Financial Partners LLC now owns 2,965 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 96.4% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Advocates LLC now owns 16,214 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,882,000 after buying an additional 7,960 shares in the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd now owns 143,129 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $16,632,000 after buying an additional 80,922 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its position in shares of NetApp by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 4,389 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $509,000 after acquiring an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Foster & Motley Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 40,496 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.10 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.31. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.