Blair William & Co. IL Trims Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,103 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,308 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in NetApp by 57.5% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 17.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in NetApp by 254.8% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after buying an additional 1,654,942 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in NetApp by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $225,532,000 after acquiring an additional 450,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on NTAP. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price 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. TD Cowen raised their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 38,452 shares of company stock worth $4,970,628 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.22 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $123.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.74. The firm has a market cap of $25.15 billion, a PE ratio of 26.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm 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 business’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.