NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by Royal London Asset Management Ltd.

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 92,642 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,953 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $11,442,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 12.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 59.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 38.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $131.11 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.66 billion, a PE ratio of 24.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business has a 50-day moving average of $122.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $123.72. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.62 and a 12 month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.40.

About NetApp

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.