Fmr LLC Buys 5,636 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

FMR LLC increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 267,785 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 5,636 shares during the period. FMR LLC owned about 0.13% of NetApp worth $33,074,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $24,057,000 after acquiring an additional 8,305 shares in the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,059,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. UBS Group raised their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.40.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP traded down $3.51 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $127.60. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,656,781 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,855,267. The stock has a market cap of $25.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.46, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $122.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.