PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Acquires 2,088 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 22,941 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,088 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,833,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in NetApp by 39.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $41,357,000 after acquiring an additional 111,439 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC grew its position in NetApp by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 2,892 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $304,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,489 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $366,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in NetApp by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 346,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,382,000 after buying an additional 2,790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its position in NetApp by 6,290.7% in the 1st quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 9,650 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,013,000 after buying an additional 9,499 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on NTAP. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group increased their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $126.18 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.19, a PEG ratio of 3.15 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 current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.81.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently 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.