V Square Quantitative Management LLC Has $642,000 Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 11.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,988 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 660 shares during the quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $642,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 58.7% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 706.3% in the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth about $28,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock traded up $1.24 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $127.11. 451,179 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,922,764. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $126.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $110.13. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The stock has a market cap of $26.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.13, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. NetApp’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 in the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.38.

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.