National Pension Service Boosts Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

National Pension Service grew its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 436,165 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 41,250 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in NetApp were worth $53,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management raised its position in shares of NetApp by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its holdings in NetApp by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its position in NetApp by 0.5% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after buying an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $116.40 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $74.82 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The company has a market cap of $23.84 billion, a PE ratio of 22.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.35 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $120.98.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.62%.

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.