Bank of Nova Scotia Purchases 200,339 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 824.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 224,640 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 200,339 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in NetApp were worth $26,611,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 38.3% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth $315,000. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 108.9% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,947,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $313,997,000 after purchasing an additional 1,536,339 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 48.1% during the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 35,002 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,729,000 after purchasing an additional 11,370 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.7% during the second quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 31,023 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,306,000 after purchasing an additional 1,101 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Northland Securities set a $137.00 price target on shares of NetApp and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $128.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.42.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.67, for a total value of $100,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,051,855.94. This represents a 4.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 3,000 shares of company stock valued at $309,610. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $102.24 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $20.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $126.66. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $101.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $110.47.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The data storage provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.07 by $0.05. NetApp had a return on equity of 118.11% and a net margin of 18.07%.The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.91 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 2.210-2.310 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.920-8.020 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 34.78%.

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.