Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Invests $429,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,473 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $429,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after buying an additional 24,651 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 20.9% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,059,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Trading Down 5.5 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.43 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $122.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.07 billion, a PE ratio of 22.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.56 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. TD Cowen boosted their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by 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.