Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Grows Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,555 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 596 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $973,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 706.3% in the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $35,000. 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 business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,452 shares of company stock worth $4,970,628 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $120.08 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $123.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $116.43. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.88, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group raised their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Argus raised their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Company 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.