Federated Hermes Inc. Purchases 2,203 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 103,117 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,203 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.05% of NetApp worth $13,281,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $270,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 273,991 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,155,000 after purchasing an additional 10,563 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in NetApp by 34.5% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,116 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $98,000 after buying an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $232,502,000. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its position in NetApp by 89.7% in the 4th quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 14,470 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,276,000 after buying an additional 6,841 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays boosted their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction 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 $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 in the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 0.5 %

NetApp stock opened at $117.86 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $124.70 and a 200 day moving average of $116.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.40, a P/E/G ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. 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 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.76%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

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

NetApp 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.