Navellier & Associates Inc. Increases Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Navellier & Associates Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 45,485 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,690 shares during the period. Navellier & Associates Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd 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 period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in NetApp by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $96,873,000 after purchasing an additional 187,638 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Northland Securities boosted their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen raised their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.33.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp 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 completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value 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 approximately $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 0.1 %

NTAP stock opened at $124.47 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $85.28 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day moving average of $120.07 and a 200 day moving average of $121.86.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.