Bank of Montreal Can Has $34.51 Million Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Bank of Montreal Can lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 17.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 284,627 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 60,193 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in NetApp were worth $34,508,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 17.5% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $48,074,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after purchasing an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. One equities 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.43 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.56 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $122.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.51, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.