Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,338 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 328 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $388,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 target price (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital dropped their target price on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America upgraded 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, February 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, 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 the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $91.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $91.19 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $117.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $120.89. The company has a market capitalization of $18.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.89, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

NetApp Company 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.