6,267 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Purchased by True North Advisors LLC

True North Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,267 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $727,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $45,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in NetApp during the third quarter worth $44,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.9 %

NTAP stock opened at $126.05 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $120.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $25.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced 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 return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 43,110 shares of company stock worth $5,077,596. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities increased their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.