Korea Investment CORP Grows Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Korea Investment CORP grew its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 40.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 156,306 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 45,076 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $18,144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted 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 acquiring an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $64,683,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 worth $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Down 3.0 %

NetApp stock opened at $88.40 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $109.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $117.25. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $88.14 and a one year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup reduced their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 target price (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $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 have sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp 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.