NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Position Increased by Royal London Asset Management Ltd.

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 92,642 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 6,953 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $11,442,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Petrus Trust Company LTA increased its holdings in NetApp by 37.8% during the 3rd quarter. Petrus Trust Company LTA now owns 11,180 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,381,000 after purchasing an additional 3,069 shares during the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario grew its position in shares of NetApp by 85.8% during the third quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 53,890 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $6,656,000 after buying an additional 24,892 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $326,000. Ascent Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter valued at $1,617,000. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 21,534 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $2,664,000 after acquiring an additional 4,634 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company's stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded up $2.32 on Friday, hitting $131.11. The stock had a trading volume of 2,100,197 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,156,544. The company's 50-day moving average is $122.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.72. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.62 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $26.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna reiterated a "positive" rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $137.40.

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.