Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Acquires New Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 58,167 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,492,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in NetApp by 127.0% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after buying an additional 950,204 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 46.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth about $473,000. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $802,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 189.2% during the fourth quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 263,103 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $23,195,000 after acquiring an additional 172,132 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $117.32 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $124.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $116.08. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI upped their price target 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Company 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.