NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Entropy Technologies LP

Entropy Technologies LP lifted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 148.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,973 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,760 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,140,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 375.0% in the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its stake in NetApp by 54.9% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total transaction of $918,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 288,305 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,160,004.40. This represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total transaction of $106,840.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 24,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,590,976.84. The trade was a 3.96% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $105.88 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $21.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $104.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. NetApp’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.80 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.21.

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.