M&T Bank Corp Buys 226 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,213 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,508,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after buying an additional 613,583 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 17.5% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,074,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 38.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $27,721,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $121.95 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.62 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $24.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.42, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.99.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Barclays raised their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.40.

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.