Range Financial Group LLC Buys 2,223 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Range Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 46.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,054 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,223 shares during the period. Range Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $819,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New Hampshire increased its stake in NetApp by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New Hampshire now owns 14,734 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,710,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares during the period. Fortem Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC now owns 10,373 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067 shares in the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 13,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,590,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $110,000. Finally, Everence Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 33.8% during the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,760 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $901,000 after buying an additional 1,960 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.82 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $117.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,373,997 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,276,301. The company has a market capitalization of $23.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.54, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. 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 fifty day simple moving average of $121.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.44. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.