Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Grows Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 120.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 140,993 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 77,059 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank owned about 0.07% of NetApp worth $12,430,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of NetApp by 70.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $691,339,000 after buying an additional 3,439,053 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $138,383,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 291.7% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,040,846 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $65,428,000 after purchasing an additional 775,136 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in NetApp by 83.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,577,675 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $100,735,000 after purchasing an additional 716,604 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in NetApp by 689.7% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $61,026,000 after purchasing an additional 702,391 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $97.95 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $98.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.42. The company has a market cap of $20.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.26, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.92 and a 12 month high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.02 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.04%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup boosted their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.94.

NetApp Profile

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.