NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Lifted by UniSuper Management Pty Ltd

UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 47,724 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,121 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,540,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in NetApp by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,485,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 120.7% in the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,998,000 after purchasing an additional 37,684 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after buying an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its position in NetApp by 232.2% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after buying an additional 4,705 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

NetApp Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $88.40 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $88.14 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a 50-day moving average of $109.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $117.23. The company has a market cap of $17.98 billion, a PE ratio of 16.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.