Avanza Fonder AB Invests $1.98 Million in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Avanza Fonder AB bought a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 17,029 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,977,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Aviso Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.4% in the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its stake in NetApp by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN increased its holdings in NetApp by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $340,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 5,108 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $631,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $122.09 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $120.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,149,531 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.