NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 120.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 140,993 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 77,059 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in NetApp were worth $12,430,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 82.9% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $97.95 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $20.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.92 and a 1-year high of $112.48. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $98.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $88.42.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.94.

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.