Meridian Wealth Management LLC Purchases New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,676 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $331,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 13.1% during the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 4,206 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $519,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 44,213 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,483,000 after acquiring an additional 1,901 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $401,000. Trustmark National Bank Trust Department bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at $1,418,000. Finally, Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 83.0% during the third quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 14,136 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,746,000 after purchasing an additional 6,410 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $126.18 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $77.56 and a one year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 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 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group raised their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen upped their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.