Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Increases Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 29.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 248,675 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 56,070 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned about 0.12% of NetApp worth $32,029,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in NetApp by 706.3% in the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Argus lifted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,452 shares of company stock valued at $4,970,628 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $123.74 and a 200 day moving average of $116.74. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The stock has a market cap of $25.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.34, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23.

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 net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically 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.