NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Capital International Investors

Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,292,077 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 888 shares during the quarter. Capital International Investors’ holdings in NetApp were worth $555,509,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of 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 valued at $497,556,000 after buying an additional 2,059,574 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 254.8% during the 1st 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 buying an additional 1,654,942 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after buying an additional 950,204 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $74,257,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $0.59 during trading on Friday, reaching $126.15. The company had a trading volume of 1,194,943 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,956,158. The company has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $125.02 and its 200-day moving average is $106.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th were given a $0.52 dividend. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Company 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.