NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Invesco Ltd.

Key Points

• Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 12.3%, owning 3,507,590 shares worth approximately $308.11 million as of the first quarter.
• NetApp reported quarterly earnings of $1.93 per share, exceeding analyst expectations of $1.90, and a revenue of $1.73 billion, up 3.8% from the previous year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, representing a 1.9% dividend yield, with a payout ratio of 36.62%.

Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 12.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 384,362 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned about 1.72% of NetApp worth $308,107,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Forsta AP Fonden grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 38.3% in the first quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 58,100 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $5,104,000 after acquiring an additional 16,100 shares in the last quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $320,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 370,570 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,551,000 after purchasing an additional 11,115 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC now owns 11,190 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $983,000 after purchasing an additional 699 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total transaction of $105,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,462,280.90. This trade represents a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 19,302 shares of company stock valued at $2,026,379 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $119.21.

NetApp Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NTAP traded down $0.77 on Friday, hitting $108.79. 2,066,158 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,473,976. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.44. The stock's 50 day moving average is $105.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $100.97. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.62%.

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.