32,635 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Purchased by Quadrature Capital Ltd

Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 32,635 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,877,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 58.7% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 40.4% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 490 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $120.98. 1,383,621 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,416,936. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $108.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.51 and a twelve month high of $122.30. The company has a market capitalization of $24.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 1.25.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. NetApp’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.20 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 43.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $92.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. TD Cowen increased their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. UBS Group increased their price target on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.38.

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.