Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Takes $1.20 Million Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise has acquired a stake in NetApp, Inc., purchasing 13,666 shares valued at approximately $1.2 million during the first quarter.
• The company is witnessing increased institutional interest, with organizations like Itau Unibanco and Coppell Advisory Solutions making significant investments and expansions in their ownership of NetApp shares.
• NetApp recently reported strong financials, with $1.73 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.93, surpassing analysts' expectations.

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise purchased a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 13,666 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,201,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 54.9% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP traded down $3.03 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.10. 1,414,970 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,410,739. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $104.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $102.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $20.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.44.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group lowered their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $118.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total transaction of $106,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 24,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,590,976.84. The trade was a 3.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total value of $918,680.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 288,305 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,160,004.40. This represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479. 0.47% 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.