River Road Asset Management LLC Purchases Shares of 39,302 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

River Road Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 39,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,562,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in NetApp by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after acquiring an additional 199,384 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after acquiring an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its position in shares of NetApp by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,948,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $228,492,000 after purchasing an additional 397,871 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its position 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 worth $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,287,432 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,445,000 after purchasing an additional 27,857 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $90.92 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $90.08 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $116.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $119.89. The stock has a market cap of $18.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.29%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on NTAP. Barclays cut their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.07.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 61,431 shares of company stock worth $7,309,224. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.