Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Purchases 400 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 54.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,131 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $232,502,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $249,307,000 after buying an additional 773,773 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 worth $241,905,000 after buying an additional 1,654,942 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in NetApp by 26.5% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $225,532,000 after buying an additional 450,263 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’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 transaction of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 7.9 %

NTAP traded down $10.39 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $121.52. 2,456,089 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,901,182. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.01 billion, a PE ratio of 26.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $127.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $113.33. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group boosted 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. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Argus boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $127.67.

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.