Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Purchases 778 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 30,321 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 778 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of NetApp by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,299,008 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $174,449,000 after acquiring an additional 47,040 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in shares of NetApp by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,264,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $95,927,000 after acquiring an additional 55,353 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of NetApp by 31.7% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $84,202,000 after acquiring an additional 266,812 shares in the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 899,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $68,228,000 after acquiring an additional 179,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 812,588 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,659,000 after acquiring an additional 58,131 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NTAP. Citigroup raised their price objective on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

NetApp Stock Up 1.5 %

NetApp stock opened at $99.42 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $20.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $99.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $88.94. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.92 and a 12 month high of $112.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. Equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.45%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total value of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at $14,877,807.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.