Legal & General Group Plc Acquires 82,378 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 1.17% of NetApp worth $309,811,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in NetApp by 23.6% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 63,391 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,165,000 after purchasing an additional 12,119 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 4.7% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after buying an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. bought a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter worth $1,749,000. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,914,000. Finally, Daymark Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 17,981 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,316,000 after acquiring an additional 1,384 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $121.24 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.13, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $123.18 and its 200 day moving average is $117.33.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

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.