Cwm LLC Grows Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cwm LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 15.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $667,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in NetApp by 57.5% during the fourth 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 purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $232,502,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,299,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $174,449,000 after buying an additional 47,040 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,808,051 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $159,398,000 after buying an additional 24,416 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,771,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $156,183,000 after buying an additional 507,317 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. UBS Group raised their target price on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Susquehanna raised their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.81.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $127.47 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $112.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.69. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $130.87. The stock has a market cap of $26.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.19 and a beta of 1.25.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 43.10%.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.