Bank of New York Mellon Corp Increases Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 5.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,705,260 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 89,039 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned 0.84% of NetApp worth $149,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after acquiring an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in NetApp by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after buying an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,653,000 after buying an additional 220,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $335,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,919 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 17,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,590,514. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $117.79.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP traded down $1.15 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $105.27. 1,538,114 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,914,460. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The company has a market cap of $21.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.53, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.42. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $101.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.32.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

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.