Prudential PLC Purchases 13,338 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Prudential PLC raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 35.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 51,349 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,338 shares during the period. Prudential PLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $6,614,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 17,754 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,287,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 5,051 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $651,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. Finally, Graypoint LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 2,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $262,000 after acquiring an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Bank of America raised their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were 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 owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $114.60 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.47 billion, a PE ratio of 24.70, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $126.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $115.28.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. 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 allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.