Epoch Investment Partners Inc. Sells 78,894 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lessened its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,903,893 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 78,894 shares during the quarter. NetApp makes up about 1.1% of Epoch Investment Partners Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned approximately 0.93% of NetApp worth $245,221,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 57.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 254.8% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $249,307,000 after purchasing an additional 773,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $56,313,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Argus increased their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report 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 assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,604,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of NetApp 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. 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 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $122.22 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The stock has a market cap of $25.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.34, a P/E/G ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $123.74 and a 200 day moving average of $116.66. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm 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 firm earned $0.84 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in 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 usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are 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.