M&G Plc Decreases Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

M&G Plc reduced its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 90.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,877 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 108,604 shares during the quarter. M&G Plc’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,403,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 65,140.0% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after purchasing an additional 3,257 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $236,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 204.0% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 14,952 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,318,000 after buying an additional 10,033 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Graypoint LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $210,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.38.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $2.94 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $125.87. The stock had a trading volume of 1,491,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,932,258. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $109.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 44.83%.

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

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is 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.