Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda Reduces Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda trimmed its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 13.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,643 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 550 shares during the period. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda’s holdings in NetApp were worth $321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in NetApp by 57.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in NetApp by 127.0% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $74,257,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its position in NetApp by 689.7% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,026,000 after purchasing an additional 702,391 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $128.71 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $129.65. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $111.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $99.29. The company has a market cap of $26.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.74, a PEG ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 1.25.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 43.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. 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 report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.81.

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.