National Bank of Canada FI Purchases 178,135 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 202.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 266,262 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 178,135 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned approximately 0.13% of NetApp worth $32,886,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 37.8% during the third quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,515 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,904,000 after purchasing an additional 6,453 shares in the last quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,620,000. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 86,709 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $10,268,000 after buying an additional 11,831 shares in the last quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 168.8% in the 3rd quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 4,300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $531,000 after buying an additional 2,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 11.0% in the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 5,003 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $618,000 after buying an additional 494 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NTAP. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $137.40.

NetApp Stock Down 2.7 %

NTAP stock traded down $3.51 during trading on Monday, hitting $127.60. 1,656,781 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,855,267. The firm's 50 day moving average is $122.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.88. The stock has a market cap of $25.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.62 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during 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%. NetApp's revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.63%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

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.