Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Purchases 28,485 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 575,127 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 28,485 shares during the quarter. NetApp accounts for 1.0% of Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $50,519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 251 shares during the period. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $106.25 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $21.61 billion, a PE ratio of 19.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $91.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $106.44.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $577,668. The trade was a 78.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 29,026 shares of company stock valued at $2,549,860. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.79.

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.