Intact Investment Management Inc. Acquires 9,600 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 37.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 35,300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,600 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,101,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in NetApp by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,485,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management boosted its stake in NetApp by 120.7% during the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,998,000 after buying an additional 37,684 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in NetApp by 39.6% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 36,998 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,250,000 after buying an additional 10,494 shares during the period. Finally, Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $5,151,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,998 shares of company stock worth $3,366,108. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 0.1%

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $102.69 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a 50-day moving average of $95.79 and a 200 day moving average of $104.89. The firm has a market cap of $20.58 billion, a PE ratio of 18.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.03%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on NTAP. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.79.

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.