Railway Pension Investments Ltd Acquires 19,300 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Railway Pension Investments Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 352,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,300 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd owned 0.17% of NetApp worth $36,998,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp raised its position in NetApp by 706.3% in the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $3.46 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $119.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,385,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,609,858. The company has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a PE ratio of 25.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.96 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $125.96 and a 200 day moving average of $108.25. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01.

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

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were 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 owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. 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. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.