Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Has $22.29 Million Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 252,863 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,405 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. owned about 0.12% of NetApp worth $22,292,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,812,000 after purchasing an additional 35,172 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after purchasing an additional 65,644 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after purchasing an additional 28,609 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $817,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on NTAP. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.39 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $101.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,124,804 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,871,116. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.54 and a fifty-two week high of $112.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $89.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

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.