Capital International Investors Buys 888 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Capital International Investors grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,292,077 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 888 shares during the quarter. Capital International Investors owned 2.56% of NetApp worth $555,509,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Heron Bay Capital Management raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.2% in the first quarter. Heron Bay Capital Management now owns 25,973 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,726,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 45.6% in the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,164 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,618 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $101,000. Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.8% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 152,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $16,051,000 after purchasing an additional 5,601 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shell Asset Management Co. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 46.7% in the first quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 12,908 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,355,000 after purchasing an additional 4,112 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $0.59 on Friday, reaching $126.15. The company had a trading volume of 1,194,943 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,956,158. The firm has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a P/E/G ratio of 5.09 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $125.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $106.98. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01.

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

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.