APG Asset Management N.V. Buys 47,815 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

APG Asset Management N.V. grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 389,742 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,815 shares during the quarter. APG Asset Management N.V.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $46,838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $497,556,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 254.8% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $225,532,000 after acquiring an additional 450,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Down 2.6 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $121.24 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $24.95 billion, a PE ratio of 26.17, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $123.27 and a 200-day moving average of $117.10.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NTAP. TD Cowen increased their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group increased their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Argus increased their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Bank of America increased their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 90 days, insiders sold 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.