Barclays PLC Buys 187,638 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 784,339 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 187,638 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned 0.38% of NetApp worth $96,873,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company's stock, 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $137.40.

NetApp Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.85 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $123.51. The stock had a trading volume of 1,207,524 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,855,596. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $122.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $123.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.62 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $25.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.