Osmosis Investment Management UK Ltd Buys Shares of 4,689 NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Osmosis Investment Management UK Ltd bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 4,689 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $726,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter worth about $2,925,168,000. State Street Corp increased 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 buying an additional 115,451 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 17.1% during the 3rd 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 period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $458,060,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.4% during the 4th 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 worth $442,018,000 after acquiring an additional 611,003 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded NetApp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Susquehanna upped their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Northland Securities raised their price target on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $179.77.

Insider Activity

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

NetApp Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NTAP opened at $187.43 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.41. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $93.69 and a 1-year high of $209.06. The stock has a market cap of $36.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The company had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.93 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 32.70%.

NetApp Profile

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.