Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Sells 17,480 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. lessened its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 88.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,394 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 17,480 shares during the quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $308,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 60.7% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 39,524 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,091,000 after acquiring an additional 14,925 shares during the last quarter. Distillate Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $15,139,000. Interval Partners LP bought a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $1,868,000. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 37,971 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,891,000 after purchasing an additional 1,234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in NetApp by 18.4% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 344,820 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $44,309,000 after purchasing an additional 53,647 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,637 shares of company stock worth $1,376,474 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $124.45 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $123.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $117.04. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.61 billion, a PE ratio of 26.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Citigroup raised their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

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.