The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Grows Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,305 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in NetApp were worth $24,057,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 706.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research 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. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Down 1.8 %

NTAP opened at $121.31 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The business’s 50 day moving average is $122.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.71. The firm has a market cap of $24.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was 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 can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474 over the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.