Handelsbanken Fonder AB Increases Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 25.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 164,660 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 33,811 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned 0.08% of NetApp worth $14,516,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $99.42 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.92 and a 12-month high of $112.48. The company has a market capitalization of $20.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $99.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $88.94.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Argus raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 4th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% 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.