BOCHK Asset Management Ltd Buys 56,900 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• BOCHK Asset Management acquired 56,900 NetApp shares worth approximately $11.95 million, making NTAP about 1.7% of its portfolio. Institutional investors collectively own 92.17% of the stock.
• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus on NetApp, with an average price target of $205.24; ratings include one Strong Buy, eleven Buys and ten Holds.
• NetApp exceeded quarterly expectations with $2.58 in earnings per share and $2.02 billion in revenue, while revenue rose 29.9% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, yielding approximately 1.1% annually.

BOCHK Asset Management Ltd purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 56,900 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $11,954,000. NetApp comprises approximately 1.7% of BOCHK Asset Management Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 1,433 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $301,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Fortitude Family Office LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 56.9% in the third quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 204 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 4.7% in the third quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 1,719 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 4.4% during the third quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,935 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $407,000 after purchasing an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.0% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,540 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on NTAP. Loop Capital set a $300.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Argus set a $225.00 target price on NetApp and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded NetApp from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $205.24.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $185.26 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $205.03 and a 200-day moving average of $150.41. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $93.69 and a one year high of $240.87. The company has a market cap of $36.39 billion, a PE ratio of 30.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.16.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 9th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 29.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $690,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,814 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,562,800. This represents a 21.21% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total transaction of $1,159,547.40. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,747 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,291.87. This represents a 43.40% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 173,524 shares of company stock worth $35,018,126. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises data centers, public clouds and hybrid environments. Its offerings support enterprise applications, artificial intelligence workloads, business analytics, backup and disaster recovery.

The company's portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid-flash storage systems, the ONTAP data management operating system, StorageGRID object storage and Keystone storage-as-a-service.

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