Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Boosts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 71,531 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,632 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,303,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Boston Partners grew its stake in NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 276.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $64,683,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,948,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $228,492,000 after buying an additional 397,871 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup lowered their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 target price (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.07.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value 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 approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $92.10 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $89.88 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.93, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $112.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.27.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

NetApp Company 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.