Voleon Capital Management LP Takes $758,000 Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Voleon Capital Management LP bought a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 8,635 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $758,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,090 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,519,000 after buying an additional 2,894 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 34.9% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 58,817 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,828,000 after acquiring an additional 15,232 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 29.6% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 209,295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,294,000 after purchasing an additional 47,857 shares in the last quarter. Moore Capital Management LP acquired a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $6,384,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in NetApp by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 49,177 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,708,000 after purchasing an additional 5,279 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NTAP opened at $123.12 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $108.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $99.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.58 billion, a PE ratio of 21.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total transaction of $105,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 23,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,462,280.90. The trade was a 4.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.85, for a total value of $925,225.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 283,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,879,438.80. This trade represents a 2.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 27,500 shares of company stock valued at $2,921,775 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.07.

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.