Profund Advisors LLC Purchases 271 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Profund Advisors LLC raised its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,247 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 271 shares during the quarter. Profund Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $547,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 254.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in NetApp by 127.0% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 773,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 40.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 507,317 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, 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 sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,952 shares of company stock valued at $4,016,328 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $121.68 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. 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 $24.92 billion, a PE ratio of 26.22, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $123.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted 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 net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 reacquire up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Argus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

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.