Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Purchases Shares of 842,297 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 842,297 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $74,257,000. NetApp makes up approximately 1.3% of Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned about 0.41% of NetApp as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in NetApp by 689.7% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,026,000 after buying an additional 702,391 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 10,320.5% in the 3rd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 577,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,821,000 after purchasing an additional 571,962 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $84,202,000 after purchasing an additional 266,812 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 899,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $68,228,000 after purchasing an additional 179,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 49.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 362,959 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,541,000 after purchasing an additional 119,955 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 0.0 %

NTAP traded down $0.04 during trading on Monday, reaching $97.91. 1,830,191 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,880,712. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $98.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $88.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $60.92 and a fifty-two week high of $112.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.02 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush boosted their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.60.

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.