Swedbank AB Buys New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Swedbank AB purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 68,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,141,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. J.Safra Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 706.3% in the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the period. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in NetApp by 58.7% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $3.46 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $119.05. 2,385,889 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,609,858. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.66, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $125.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $108.25.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.