NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Plato Investment Management Ltd

Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,195 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 545 shares during the quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $532,000. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $376,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $1,271,000. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.2% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 103,117 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,281,000 after purchasing an additional 2,203 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 119,995 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $15,455,000 after purchasing an additional 1,382 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 value 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. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Up 0.7 %

NetApp stock opened at $117.32 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $124.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $116.08. The firm has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 44.83%.

About NetApp

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.