APG Asset Management N.V. Reduces Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• APG Asset Management N.V. reduced its stake in NetApp by 10.4%, selling 33,637 shares during the first quarter, leaving them with approximately 0.14% of the company valued at $23.6 million.
• Despite the sell-off by APG, other institutional investors such as Manchester Capital Management and Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings significantly increased their holdings in NetApp during the same period.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on NetApp, with an average price target of $119.86, reflecting a general consensus of "Hold" alongside a recent earnings report that showed a net revenue growth of 3.8% year-over-year.

APG Asset Management N.V. decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 10.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 290,160 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 33,637 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. owned approximately 0.14% of NetApp worth $23,595,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 4,687.6% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,068,694 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $93,874,000 after acquiring an additional 1,046,372 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. raised its holdings in NetApp by 5,858.0% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in NetApp by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,375,363,000 after purchasing an additional 597,956 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of NetApp by 24.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $327,848,000 after purchasing an additional 550,607 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on NTAP. Bank of America boosted their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 target price on NetApp in a research report on Thursday. Northland Securities raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $124.07.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.85, for a total transaction of $925,225.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 283,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,879,438.80. This represents a 2.91% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,802 shares of company stock worth $2,951,604 over the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $4.64 during trading on Friday, reaching $112.58. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,435,494 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,049,846. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $106.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.24. The company has a market capitalization of $22.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.44. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 123.22%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. The business's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.75%.

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.