Merit Financial Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 57.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,335 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,314 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 826.9% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group decreased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.79.

NetApp Trading Up 1.6%

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $106.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,026 shares of company stock valued at $2,549,860. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.