Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Sells 3,774 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 99,317 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,774 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. owned 0.05% of NetApp worth $15,370,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 38.3% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at $315,000. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 4,232 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 24,301 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,589,000 after buying an additional 1,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 12.7% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,148,000 after buying an additional 2,277 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the sale, the president directly owned 46,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,246,504.92. This trade represents a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total transaction of $193,820.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 30,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,872,164.54. The trade was a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 55,072 shares of company stock worth $8,719,520 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America lifted their price objective on NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Argus increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $179.77.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $187.02 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $209.06. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $175.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.27. 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 market capitalization of $36.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 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 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.93 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.