Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Buys New Shares in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 49,571 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,672,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,925,168,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in NetApp by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,192,354 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,091,499,000 after acquiring an additional 115,451 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in NetApp by 17.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,915,553 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $582,296,000 after acquiring an additional 718,409 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $458,060,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in NetApp by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,127,533 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $442,018,000 after acquiring an additional 611,003 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 3.4%

NTAP opened at $193.85 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $174.74 and its 200-day moving average is $137.07. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $209.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.93 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total transaction of $533,283.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 46,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,514,454.40. This trade represents a 5.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total value of $193,820.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 30,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,872,164.54. This trade represents a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 55,297 shares of company stock worth $8,758,016 in the last three months. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Susquehanna raised their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wedbush boosted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $179.77.

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.