Tredje AP fonden Cuts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Tredje AP fonden lessened its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 50.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,276 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 16,275 shares during the quarter. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,889,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 826.9% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value 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 represents a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 61,431 shares of company stock valued at $7,309,224 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 2.1 %

NTAP opened at $91.98 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $114.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $119.20. 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 company has a market cap of $18.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $89.88 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

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.