LGT Group Foundation Acquires 161,722 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• LGT Group Foundation significantly increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. by 129.0%, acquiring an additional 161,722 shares to bring its total ownership to 287,132 shares valued at approximately $25.22 million.
• Institutional investors hold a substantial 92.17% of NetApp's shares, indicating strong institutional interest in the company's stock.
• NetApp reported a quarterly profit of $1.93 EPS, exceeding analysts' expectations of $1.90, while also announcing a dividend of $0.52 per share with a 2.0% yield.

LGT Group Foundation increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 129.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 287,132 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 161,722 shares during the quarter. LGT Group Foundation owned 0.14% of NetApp worth $25,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in NetApp by 39.6% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 36,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,250,000 after acquiring an additional 10,494 shares in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its holdings in NetApp by 55.8% during the 1st quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 221,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $19,492,000 after acquiring an additional 79,457 shares in the last quarter. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $321,000. UNICOM Systems Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $13,483,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $2,050,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total transaction of $918,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 288,305 shares in the company, valued at $31,160,004.40. The trade was a 2.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,302 shares of company stock worth $2,026,379 over the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $119.21.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP traded up $0.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $109.56. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,965,300 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,504,615. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.95 billion, a PE ratio of 19.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.44. The stock's 50-day moving average is $105.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.04.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.