E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Buys Shares of 2,391 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,391 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $308,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its position in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during 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 during the period. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $119.35 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $124.13 and its 200-day moving average is $116.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.56 billion, a PE ratio of 25.72, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

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.