Vanguard Group Inc. Grows Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp, acquiring an additional 597,956 shares, which now totals approximately 27 million shares, representing a 13.29% ownership valued at about $2.375 billion.
• Several institutional investors have modified their holdings in NetApp; notable increases include a 39.6% stake raised by Assenagon Asset Management and a 55.8% increase by Achmea Investment Management.
• NetApp announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend of $2.08, which represents a dividend yield of 2.0% as of the latest payment date.

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 597,956 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 13.29% of NetApp worth $2,375,363,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in NetApp by 39.6% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 36,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,250,000 after purchasing an additional 10,494 shares in the last quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. lifted its position in NetApp by 55.8% during the first quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 221,907 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $19,492,000 after purchasing an additional 79,457 shares in the last quarter. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the first quarter valued at $321,000. UNICOM Systems Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the first quarter valued at $13,483,000. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the first quarter valued at $2,050,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company's stock, 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 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wedbush reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group decreased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $118.86.

NetApp Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $106.21 on Friday. The business's 50 day moving average is $104.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.28 billion, a P/E 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 data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is 36.62%.

NetApp 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.

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