Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Purchases 16,487 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 186.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,335 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 16,487 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise's holdings in NetApp were worth $3,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in NetApp by 3.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $208,133,000 after purchasing an additional 211,204 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in NetApp by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $223,806,000 after purchasing an additional 196,952 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 613,583 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock traded up $1.25 on Wednesday, reaching $123.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,351,460 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,812,518. The business's fifty day moving average price is $121.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $25.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.11, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.30 and a twelve month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is 40.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $129.06.

About NetApp

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.