Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Buys New Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,389 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $148,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 4,687.6% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,068,694 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $93,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,372 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in NetApp by 1,230.3% in the second quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,007,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $107,359,000 after purchasing an additional 931,850 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 2.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,375,363,000 after purchasing an additional 597,956 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 18.8% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,546,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $311,529,000 after purchasing an additional 560,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 97.7% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,096,236 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $96,293,000 after purchasing an additional 541,837 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $124.07.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total value of $123,670.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 23,628 shares in the company, valued at $2,922,074.76. The trade was a 4.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total transaction of $94,936.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,529 shares of company stock worth $3,243,874 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $121.82 on Thursday. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $115.22 and its 200 day moving average is $103.24. The company has a market cap of $24.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.52, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 36.75%.

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.