DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP – Free Report) by 12.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 236,353 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,244 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned 0.11% of NetApp worth $14,544,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in NetApp by 37.0% during the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 5,127 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $327,000 after purchasing an additional 1,385 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in NetApp by 35.7% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,437 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $539,000 after purchasing an additional 2,219 shares in the last quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 38.2% during the first quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC now owns 8,482 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after acquiring an additional 2,344 shares in the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 0.5% in the first quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 111,094 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,093,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its stake in NetApp by 18.5% in the first quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 744,252 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $47,520,000 after purchasing an additional 116,060 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.53% of the company’s stock.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 2,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.49, for a total transaction of $142,852.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 140,420 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,915,265.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total value of $64,161.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,953 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,026,661.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 2,250 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.49, for a total transaction of $142,852.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 140,420 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,915,265.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 7,622 shares of company stock worth $522,014 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $86.00 to $89.00 in a report on Thursday, June 1st. SpectralCast reissued a “maintains” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday, June 1st. Bank of America lowered NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $58.00 in a report on Thursday, April 20th. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $67.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $75.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.95.
NetApp Trading Up 2.0 %
NTAP opened at $77.80 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.22. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $58.08 and a 12 month high of $79.09. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06.
NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 31st. The data storage provider reported $1.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.20. NetApp had a net margin of 20.02% and a return on equity of 93.62%. The firm had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.21 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.
NetApp Dividend Announcement
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, July 7th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 6th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.57%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.48%.
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.