Crewe Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 334 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $35,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 21,681 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,911,000 after acquiring an additional 1,589 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,279 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $554,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,187 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $105,000 after buying an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 41,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,633,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock traded down $0.14 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $125.56. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,466,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,961,517. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.06, a PEG ratio of 5.23 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $124.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $106.70.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on NTAP. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.