Suncoast Equity Management Raises Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Suncoast Equity Management grew its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.1% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 6,365 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 785 shares during the quarter. Suncoast Equity Management’s holdings in NetApp were worth $559,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $362,544,000 after buying an additional 529,471 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,653,000 after buying an additional 220,393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $335,215,000 after buying an additional 12,919 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson bought 2,800 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at $577,668. This represents a 78.92% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,998 shares of company stock valued at $3,366,108 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $102.69 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $95.79 and a 200-day moving average of $105.06. The company has a market cap of $20.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.08, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup raised their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average 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.