OP Asset Management Ltd Buys New Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

OP Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 20,463 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,095,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. State Street Corp raised its holdings in NetApp by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,192,354 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,091,499,000 after purchasing an additional 115,451 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in NetApp by 17.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,915,553 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $582,296,000 after purchasing an additional 718,409 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $458,060,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 17.4% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,127,533 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $442,018,000 after purchasing an additional 611,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners increased its position in shares of NetApp by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,317,605 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $393,027,000 after purchasing an additional 370,405 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.73, for a total transaction of $117,730.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 18,382 shares in the company, valued at $2,164,112.86. This trade represents a 5.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 46,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,246,504.92. This represents a 51.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,106,972 over the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $152.45 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market cap of $29.87 billion, a PE ratio of 23.97, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.44. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $137.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $115.39. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $93.69 and a twelve month high of $192.83.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.93 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.70%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded NetApp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their price target on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.33.

NetApp Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.