M&G Plc Has $1.25 Million Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

M&G Plc reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,071 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 806 shares during the period. M&G Plc’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,249,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $124.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.39 billion, a PE ratio of 24.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.55 and a beta of 1.24. 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 52-week low of $75.32 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $121.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.17.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group raised their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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 value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.