Aigen Investment Management LP Makes New $1.55 Million Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Aigen Investment Management LP acquired 17,670 shares of NetApp, Inc. for approximately $1.55 million during the first quarter, indicating heightened investor interest in the data storage provider.
• Several large investors, including Vanguard Group Inc. and Ameriprise Financial Inc., have also increased their positions in NetApp, contributing to a robust 92.17% ownership by institutional investors.
• NetApp recently reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $1.93 for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations, alongside a declaration of a quarterly dividend reflecting a yield of 2.0%.

Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 17,670 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,552,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 375.0% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 54.9% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total transaction of $918,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 288,305 shares in the company, valued at $31,160,004.40. This trade represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total value of $105,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,462,280.90. This represents a 4.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,302 shares of company stock worth $2,026,379 in the last 90 days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $109.56. 1,965,257 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,033,069. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $21.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.44. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $105.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.11. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The company's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. NetApp's payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. One research 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $119.21.

NetApp Company 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.