Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 11,842 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 294,309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,842 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.14% of NetApp worth $34,163,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Monument Capital Management increased its stake in NetApp by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Monument Capital Management now owns 19,749 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,293,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares in the last quarter. Csenge Advisory Group increased its position in shares of NetApp by 168.1% during the fourth quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 6,856 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $796,000 after acquiring an additional 4,299 shares in the last quarter. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $604,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of NetApp by 611.3% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 9,105 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,148,000 after acquiring an additional 7,825 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 111.8% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 16,799 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,950,000 after acquiring an additional 8,869 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Down 0.1 %

NTAP 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 stock has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $85.28 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $120.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $121.86.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.33.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total transaction of $1,011,840.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at $31,755,705.60. The trade was a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.