Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Purchases 3,291 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 19.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,618 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,291 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,648,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $270,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 34.5% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,116 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $258,000 after buying an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 26.4% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 60,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,338,000 after buying an additional 12,634 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $300,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.22 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $123.74 and a 200-day moving average of $116.56. The company has a market capitalization of $25.15 billion, a PE ratio of 26.34, a price-to-earnings-growth 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01.

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 company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 38,452 shares of company stock valued at $4,970,628 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.