Czech National Bank Raises Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Czech National Bank increased its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,875 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,548 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,172,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 254.8% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 48.3% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $249,307,000 after purchasing an additional 773,773 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 59.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in NetApp by 26.5% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $225,532,000 after buying an additional 450,263 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $56,313,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $126.93 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $122.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $118.52. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.99 billion, a PE ratio of 24.79, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,405,297. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America increased their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company 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, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

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.