Cypress Capital Group Reduces Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cypress Capital Group lessened its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 26.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,415 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,250 shares during the period. Cypress Capital Group’s holdings in NetApp were worth $745,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 21.5% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 734,918 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $85,309,000 after purchasing an additional 129,914 shares during the last quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,998,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 194,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $22,618,000 after acquiring an additional 22,574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 27,857 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $94.87 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a fifty day moving average of $118.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.30 billion, a PE ratio of 17.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $92.59 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were 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 owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341. Company 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.