Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Buys Shares of 414 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 414 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $51,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 7.9% during the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 168,680 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $20,834,000 after buying an additional 12,285 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 52,593 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,496,000 after acquiring an additional 2,034 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $372,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management boosted its stake in NetApp by 165.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 530 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ABLE Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 13.9% during the third quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 9,311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,150,000 after purchasing an additional 1,134 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $119.68 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $121.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $121.76. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $76.41 and a one year high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.51 billion, a PE ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. NetApp’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America lifted their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.