McAdam LLC Grows Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

McAdam LLC increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,655 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 137 shares during the period. McAdam LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $308,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of NetApp by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in NetApp by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after buying an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $96,873,000 after acquiring an additional 187,638 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp 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 transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,123,351. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 0.3 %

NetApp stock opened at $122.10 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued 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 was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average 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.