ProShare Advisors LLC Acquires 18,790 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 25.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 92,948 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,790 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 66.3% in the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 7,740 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $643,000 after acquiring an additional 3,086 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its holdings in NetApp by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 29,741 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,469,000 after buying an additional 1,672 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in NetApp by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 139,507 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $11,563,000 after buying an additional 1,086 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 41.0% during the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 98,770 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $8,198,000 after buying an additional 28,705 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudential PLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $465,000. 90.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on NetApp from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 21st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NetApp from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 24th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on NetApp from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 24th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 24th. Finally, StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $78.35.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $64,161.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 13,953 shares in the company, valued at $1,026,661.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.58, for a total transaction of $64,161.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 13,953 shares in the company, valued at $1,026,661.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gerald Held sold 5,634 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.50, for a total value of $442,269.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 17,457 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,370,374.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,362 shares of company stock worth $3,787,230 over the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $77.72 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $58.08 and a fifty-two week high of $80.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $77.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.70. The company has a market capitalization of $16.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.05, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.22.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.08. NetApp had a return on equity of 85.69% and a net margin of 19.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 4.48 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 6th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 5th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 36.17%.

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.