Capital Insight Partners LLC Increases Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Capital Insight Partners LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,806 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. Capital Insight Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $877,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. raised its position in NetApp by 159.3% in the second quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 57,739 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,437,000 after acquiring an additional 35,475 shares in the last quarter. Catalina Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $215,000. Tevis Investment Management acquired a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth $437,000. Keystone Financial Services purchased a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter worth $222,000. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at $236,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 in the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $122.67.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ NTAP traded up $1.49 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $133.12. 1,223,764 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,903,468. The company has a 50 day moving average of $127.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $112.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.40 billion, a PE ratio of 28.69, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.20 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.83%.

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.