Stevens Capital Management LP Has $1.63 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Stevens Capital Management LP grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 32.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,466 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,480 shares during the period. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,628,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $74,257,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in NetApp by 689.7% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,026,000 after purchasing an additional 702,391 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 10,320.5% during the 3rd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 577,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,821,000 after purchasing an additional 571,962 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $84,202,000 after buying an additional 266,812 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ariel Investments LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 25.0% in the third quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 899,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $68,228,000 after buying an additional 179,684 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock traded up $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.33. The company had a trading volume of 2,124,744 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,871,115. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $99.90 and a 200 day moving average of $89.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The firm has a market cap of $20.91 billion, a PE ratio of 22.94, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $61.54 and a one year high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released 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 return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.97%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 45.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report 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 increased their price target on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.