Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Sells 340,027 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec has reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 64.2%, now holding 189,839 shares worth approximately $16.67 million.
• Institutional investors currently own 92.17% of NetApp, with several funds significantly increasing their stakes, including Pacer Advisors, which raised its stake by 4,687.6%.
• NetApp reported a $1.93 EPS for the recent quarter, exceeding expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, reflecting a 1.9% yield.

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec decreased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 64.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 189,839 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 340,027 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned approximately 0.09% of NetApp worth $16,675,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 14,696 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,706,000 after purchasing an additional 2,339 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 356,313 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $41,362,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 72.7% during the 4th quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 4,976 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $578,000 after purchasing an additional 2,095 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 173.2% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC now owns 1,902 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $221,000 after buying an additional 4,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,197 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $371,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 27,802 shares of company stock valued at $2,951,604. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Argus reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price 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 target price on shares of 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, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $124.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock traded down $4.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $112.79. The company had a trading volume of 2,552,025 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,902,549. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a 50 day moving average of $106.77 and a 200-day moving average of $100.07. The firm has a market cap of $22.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 123.24%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.80 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.75%.

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.