NetApp, Inc. $NTAP Shares Purchased by Shell Asset Management Co.

Shell Asset Management Co. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 17.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 17,725 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,626 shares during the period. Shell Asset Management Co.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,889,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Manchester Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 375.0% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the period. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 54.9% during the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 25th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $124.07.

NetApp Trading Up 3.2%

NTAP opened at $121.82 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $115.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $103.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 36.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,750 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.91, for a total transaction of $1,075,462.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 274,938 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,792,629.58. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total transaction of $123,670.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,922,074.76. The trade was a 4.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,243,874. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.