Artemis Investment Management LLP Buys Shares of 25,247 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 25,247 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,649,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 58.7% during the 4th 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 period. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 82.9% in the 4th 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. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NTAP traded down $0.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $128.80. 2,711,433 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,006,925. The company has a market cap of $26.51 billion, a PE ratio of 27.81, a P/E/G ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 1.25. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $130.87. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $114.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $100.82. 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 (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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.10%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,205 shares of company stock valued at $2,345,409. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

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.