NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Acquired by Royal Fund Management LLC

Royal Fund Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 43.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,824 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,911 shares during the quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,012,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $74,257,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 689.7% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,026,000 after purchasing an additional 702,391 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1,075.8% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 649,570 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $57,266,000 after purchasing an additional 594,323 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 10,320.5% during the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 577,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,821,000 after purchasing an additional 571,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 31.7% during the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $84,202,000 after purchasing an additional 266,812 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP traded up $2.52 on Friday, reaching $104.64. 2,463,599 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,409,802. The stock has a market cap of $21.60 billion, a PE ratio of 23.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.54 and a twelve month high of $112.48. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $101.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $90.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

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.