Promethos Capital LLC Invests $107,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Promethos Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 833 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $107,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 16,900 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,177,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 277,359 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,724,000 after buying an additional 39,457 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its position in NetApp by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $265,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 19.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 20,618 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,648,000 after purchasing an additional 3,291 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on NTAP. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp 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 completion of the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,452 shares of company stock worth $4,970,628. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $120.08 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.71 billion, a PE ratio of 25.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01. The company’s 50-day moving average is $123.90 and its 200-day moving average is $116.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. NetApp’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.