Artemis Investment Management LLP Buys 11,278 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Artemis Investment Management LLP grew its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 15.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,472 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,278 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $9,689,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in NetApp by 4.7% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,057,000 after acquiring an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,059,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in NetApp by 202.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 266,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,886,000 after acquiring an additional 178,135 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $122.09 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The company’s 50 day moving average is $120.88 and its 200 day moving average is $122.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 43,110 shares of company stock valued at $5,077,596. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Northland Securities increased their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Company 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.