NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Lessened by Investment Management Corp of Ontario

Investment Management Corp of Ontario lessened its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 58.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 22,196 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 31,694 shares during the period. Investment Management Corp of Ontario’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,577,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its stake in NetApp by 929.6% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays upgraded shares of NetApp from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.07.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,224 shares of company stock valued at $3,531,872 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.1%

NTAP stock opened at $93.44 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $19.01 billion, a PE ratio of 17.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $88.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $109.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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.