Ieq Capital LLC Increases Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ieq Capital LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 25.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,844 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,840 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,187,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 8.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,001 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,211,000 after purchasing an additional 2,073 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 279.1% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 57,470 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,098,000 after buying an additional 42,312 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 1,099 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $391,000 after buying an additional 642 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in NetApp by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 27,091 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,346,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $124.47 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a PE ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $85.28 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $120.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.00.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.33.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp 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.