Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Grows Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,478 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,752,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $372,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 36.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 4,948 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $519,000 after buying an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. FCF Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter worth approximately $1,259,000. Finally, Peak Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,721,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related 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 value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $126.53 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.04 billion, a PE ratio of 27.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $123.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $119.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.83%.

NetApp 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.