Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Purchases 16,487 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 186.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 25,335 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,487 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Bank of America raised their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Up 2.4 %

NTAP opened at $122.20 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.08 and a 52 week high of $135.01. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.41 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.35. The firm has a market cap of $25.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.63%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 19,716 shares of company stock valued at $2,410,457. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.