Royal Fund Management LLC Has $2.01 Million Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Royal Fund Management LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 43.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,824 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,911 shares during the quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,012,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in NetApp by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,812,000 after acquiring an additional 35,172 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in NetApp by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after acquiring an additional 65,644 shares in the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after acquiring an additional 28,609 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in NetApp by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 86,556 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $6,568,000 after acquiring an additional 1,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $817,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded up $2.52 during trading on Friday, reaching $104.64. 2,463,599 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,409,802. The company has a 50-day moving average of $101.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $90.19. The company has a market capitalization of $21.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $61.54 and a twelve month high of $112.48. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. TD Cowen upped their price target 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. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.60.

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.