ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. Invests $969,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. acquired 11,036 shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) valued at approximately $969,000 during the first quarter.
• Notable hedge funds, including Citizens Financial Group and Vanguard Group, have also increased their stakes in NetApp, indicating strong institutional interest with 92.17% of the stock owned by institutional investors.
• NetApp recently reported EPS of $1.93 for the quarter, beating estimates, and has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share which represents an annualized dividend yield of 2.0%.

ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 11,036 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $969,000.

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

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock traded down $0.40 during trading on Thursday, hitting $109.01. 758,272 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,024,965. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $105.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a market cap of $21.84 billion, a PE ratio of 19.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.80 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced 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. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $119.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total transaction of $918,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 288,305 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,160,004.40. The trade was a 2.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 19,302 shares of company stock valued at $2,026,379. 0.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.