NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Artemis Investment Management LLP

Artemis Investment Management LLP grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 15.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 83,472 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,278 shares during the quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $9,689,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America raised their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.09 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $120.88 and its 200-day moving average is $122.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 43,110 shares of company stock worth $5,077,596 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.