NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Acquired by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 312.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,269 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 26,708 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,109,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 14,650.0% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 82.9% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Argus raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 4th. TD Cowen increased their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $101.33 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $20.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $61.54 and a 12-month high of $112.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $89.36.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

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.