Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Has $492,000 Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,684 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $492,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in NetApp by 57.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 254.8% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $74,257,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded down $0.27 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $102.21. The company had a trading volume of 1,274,181 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,857,988. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $100.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $89.83. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.54 and a fifty-two week high of $112.48. The company has a market cap of $21.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.02 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares in the company, valued at $26,496,330.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $26,496,330.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 in the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Argus upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently 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.