Caxton Associates LP Purchases 18,289 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Caxton Associates LP lifted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 66.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 45,935 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,289 shares during the quarter. Caxton Associates LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,916,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 11.8% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in NetApp by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 17,754 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,287,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 2.1% during the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 5,051 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $651,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, 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 transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 30,952 shares of company stock worth $4,016,328. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock opened at $122.95 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $123.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $117.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.50, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. 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 announced 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 firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is 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.