Forsta AP Fonden Purchases 3,400 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Forsta AP Fonden lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 86,400 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,400 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in NetApp were worth $10,671,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 46.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth approximately $473,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 60.5% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 527,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $55,355,000 after purchasing an additional 198,627 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of NetApp by 221.9% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,731,000 after buying an additional 207,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 63.9% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 343,218 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,025,000 after buying an additional 133,813 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’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 transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. 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 research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $119.41 on Monday. 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 $24.45 billion, a PE ratio of 23.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $123.15 and a 200-day moving average of $120.18.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its 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 return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

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.