Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Has $5.09 Million Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 36.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 41,206 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,106 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,089,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth $402,000. Glenmede Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 20.3% in the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 537,804 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $66,424,000 after buying an additional 90,840 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 66.5% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 5,989 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 2,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avestar Capital LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 2,763 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $341,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.93 billion, a PE ratio of 22.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.62 and a one year high of $135.45. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $122.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $123.05.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. TD Cowen raised their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.40.

About NetApp

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.