Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Increases Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 523,431 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 773 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.26% of NetApp worth $64,649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management grew its position in NetApp by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Quarry LP raised its position in NetApp by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $118.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $76.41 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The stock has a market cap of $24.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $121.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Company 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.