Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Acquires 5,405 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 252,863 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,405 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $22,292,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $101.33. 2,124,804 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,871,116. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $61.54 and a 52 week 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. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $100.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $89.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group increased their price target on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen increased their price target on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus 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.