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

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

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in NetApp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its position in NetApp by 4.5% in the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $340,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in NetApp by 2.0% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,448 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $796,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DGS Capital Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,804 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $558,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities raised their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.33.

NetApp Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $124.47 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $120.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.86. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.28 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % 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 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.