XTX Topco Ltd Purchases 25,267 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 640.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 29,214 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,267 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,566,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in NetApp by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $362,544,000 after buying an additional 529,471 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in NetApp by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,653,000 after acquiring an additional 220,393 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in NetApp by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $327,848,000 after acquiring an additional 550,607 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in NetApp by 11.7% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 2,014,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $176,931,000 after acquiring an additional 210,207 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays raised their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.84, for a total value of $106,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 24,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,590,976.84. The trade was a 3.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 296,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 18,302 shares of company stock worth $1,920,479 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $106.08 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The company has a market cap of $21.26 billion, a PE ratio of 18.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.42. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $103.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $102.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

NetApp 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.