NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Position Cut by Lecap Asset Management Ltd.

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. lessened its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 74.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,354 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 30,203 shares during the period. Lecap Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,334,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after buying an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 254.8% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $74,257,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, 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 worth $5,395,146 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Bank of America lifted their target price on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.00.

NetApp Stock Up 1.5 %

NTAP traded up $2.02 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $133.41. The company had a trading volume of 1,074,017 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,912,200. The company has a market capitalization of $27.46 billion, a PE ratio of 28.75, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $127.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $111.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

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

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

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.