KBC Group NV Grows Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

KBC Group NV lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 2.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 236,407 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 6,170 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned approximately 0.12% of NetApp worth $29,198,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 48.3% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $249,307,000 after purchasing an additional 773,773 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 59.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter worth $56,313,000. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,074,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Loop Capital raised NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $0.86 during trading on Friday, reaching $117.21. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,973,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,807,237. The business's 50-day moving average price is $121.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $121.72. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $76.41 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a PE ratio of 23.07, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. NetApp's revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 40.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Company 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.