Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Raises Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 65,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,900 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in NetApp were worth $7,735,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,728,118 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,954,431,000 after purchasing an additional 686,188 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,112,316 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $756,665,000 after buying an additional 1,024,626 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of NetApp by 108.9% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,947,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $313,997,000 after buying an additional 1,536,339 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth approximately $281,093,000. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in NetApp by 8.4% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 2,362,028 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $237,269,000 after acquiring an additional 182,318 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Northland Securities set a $137.00 target price on shares of NetApp and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Northland Capmk upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on NetApp in a report on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $128.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $124.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 327 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.48, for a total transaction of $35,145.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.49, for a total transaction of $105,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 21,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,223,201.75. This trade represents a 4.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 1,654 shares of company stock worth $175,782 over the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $103.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.52, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 1.34. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $127.78. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $112.40. The company has a market capitalization of $20.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.38.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The data storage provider reported $2.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.17. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.28% and a net margin of 17.73%.The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.750-8.050 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.010-2.110 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Friday, January 2nd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.17%.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.