Merit Financial Group LLC Has $1.52 Million Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 57.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 17,335 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,314 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,523,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $438,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its position in NetApp by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Utah Retirement Systems raised its position in NetApp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 34,152 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,964,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in NetApp by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at $577,668. The trade was a 78.92% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 29,026 shares of company stock worth $2,549,860. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $106.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.61 billion, a PE ratio of 19.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $91.54 and a 200-day moving average of $106.55. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.80 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on NTAP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. 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 MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.79.

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.