Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Buys 778 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 30,321 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 778 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. First Pacific Financial purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $99.42 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $99.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $88.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.60, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $60.92 and a fifty-two week high of $112.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. UBS Group increased their price objective on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush increased their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI raised their target price on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen raised their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.60.

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.