22,773 Shares in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Bought by Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC

Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 22,773 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,643,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 38.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 926.1% in the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $35,022,000 after buying an additional 256,028 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its holdings in NetApp by 546.8% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 289,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,606,000 after acquiring an additional 244,746 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total transaction of $1,011,840.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,755,705.60. This represents a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.33.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7 %

NetApp stock opened at $122.62 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $86.43 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $24.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.54, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $120.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

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.