Diversify Advisory Services LLC Purchases 1,891 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Diversify Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 77.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,323 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,891 shares during the quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $503,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. State Street Corp lifted its position in NetApp by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after acquiring an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after buying an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position in NetApp by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $123.67 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. 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 firm has a 50 day moving average of $120.89 and a 200 day moving average of $122.71.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 43,110 shares of company stock worth $5,077,596. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.