Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. Acquires 14,037 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 13.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 119,130 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,037 shares during the quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $12,198,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Park Square Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 68.7% in the fourth quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Roble Belko & Company Inc purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 176.3% during the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 315 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $154.17 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $141.43 and a 200 day moving average of $116.44. The company has a market capitalization of $30.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $93.69 and a 12 month high of $192.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.93 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 32.70%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Northland Securities raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.33.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.73, for a total value of $117,730.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 18,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,164,112.86. The trade was a 5.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,800. The trade was a 20.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 52,964 shares of company stock worth $8,106,972. 0.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.