Mather Group LLC. Raises Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Mather Group LLC. raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 42.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,775 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,419 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $421,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Convergence Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 53.2% in the fourth quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC now owns 20,423 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,800,000 after purchasing an additional 7,093 shares in the last quarter. Paradiem LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 33.2% in the 4th quarter. Paradiem LLC now owns 92,131 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,122,000 after buying an additional 22,940 shares during the period. PGGM Investments increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 58,607 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,167,000 after acquiring an additional 599 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in NetApp by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 328,437 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,957,000 after acquiring an additional 1,625 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in NetApp by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 24,527 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,162,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. UBS Group boosted their target price on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 1.2 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $100.99 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $61.54 and a 52 week high of $112.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.95, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $101.21 and a 200 day moving average of $89.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

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.