Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Increases Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Citizens Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 6.5%, owning 60,457 shares valued at approximately $5.31 million.
• NetApp reported $1.93 earnings per share for the recent quarter, exceeding estimates, with a year-over-year revenue increase of 3.8% to $1.73 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, translating to an annual yield of 2.0% and a dividend payout ratio of 36.62%.

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 6.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 60,457 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,704 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI's holdings in NetApp were worth $5,311,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,375,363,000 after acquiring an additional 597,956 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 14.3% during the 1st quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,368 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,492,000 after purchasing an additional 3,550 shares during the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG lifted its stake in NetApp by 22.4% in the 1st quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG now owns 87,203 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,709,000 after buying an additional 15,973 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL raised its position in shares of NetApp by 14.0% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 20,582 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,808,000 after buying an additional 2,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 375.0% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley restated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $118.86.

NetApp Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $2.36 on Friday, hitting $106.21. 1,275,301 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,491,817. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $104.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $101.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $21.28 billion, a PE ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.80 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.62%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total value of $106,840.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 24,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,590,976.84. This trade represents a 3.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479 in the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is owned by company 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.