UMB Bank n.a. Grows Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 28.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 900 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $104,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in NetApp by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after buying an additional 613,583 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake 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 valued at $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $126.30 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $122.69. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $25.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.22, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. Research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.