Plato Investment Management Ltd Purchases Shares of 10,209 NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 10,209 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,571,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 38.3% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $315,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 9.9% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 46,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,986,000 after acquiring an additional 4,232 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.3% in the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 24,301 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 1,662 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.7% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 2,277 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $204.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $40.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.72 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $170.20 and a 200-day moving average price of $132.39. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $93.69 and a one year high of $209.06.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.93 EPS. 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 expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.70%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total transaction of $38,495.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $186,488.10. The trade was a 17.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total transaction of $7,658,016.48. Following the transaction, the president owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at $7,246,504.92. The trade was a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 52,689 shares of company stock worth $8,224,732. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $114.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $137.00 to $173.00 in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $172.33.

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.