GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires 1,282 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 120,470 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,282 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $13,984,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after buying an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after acquiring an additional 113,360 shares during the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 232.2% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,705 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $123.72 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $120.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.15 billion, a PE ratio of 22.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities lifted their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.