Artemis Investment Management LLP Increases Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Artemis Investment Management LLP lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 15.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,472 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 11,278 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP's holdings in NetApp were worth $9,689,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 59.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,074,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 38.5% in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA grew its position in NetApp by 926.1% in the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,022,000 after acquiring an additional 256,028 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $2.11 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $122.09. 1,821,302 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,269,484. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $120.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The company's revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 451 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 43,110 shares of company stock valued at $5,077,596. Insiders own 0.47% 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.