Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE Invests $576,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $576,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in NetApp by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management boosted its position in NetApp by 120.7% during the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,998,000 after purchasing an additional 37,684 shares during the period. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,151,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $102.94 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $93.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.95. The firm has a market cap of $20.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 36.62%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 28,498 shares of company stock valued at $2,500,978. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NTAP. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.79.

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.