Boston Common Asset Management LLC Increases Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Boston Common Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 42.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 69,312 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 20,770 shares during the quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $6,088,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $96,873,000 after acquiring an additional 187,638 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 128.7% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 6,038 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $701,000 after purchasing an additional 27,090 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 13,940 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,618,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 22.3% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,941 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $487,000 after buying an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $119.27.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock traded down $0.98 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $98.18. 1,339,515 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,918,174. The stock has a market cap of $19.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.03, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The stock's fifty day moving average is $90.19 and its 200-day moving average is $106.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. 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 quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research 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, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.12%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

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.