Acadian Asset Management LLC Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 17.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares during the quarter. NetApp accounts for approximately 1.1% of Acadian Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Acadian Asset Management LLC owned about 1.36% of NetApp worth $359,517,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 46.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the first quarter worth $473,000. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $802,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 189.2% in the fourth quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 263,103 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,195,000 after buying an additional 172,132 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 2.3 %

NTAP opened at $114.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 0.96. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01. The company has a market cap of $23.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61, a PEG ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $114.86.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on NTAP. Bank of America increased their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

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.