National Bank of Canada FI Lowers Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

National Bank of Canada FI trimmed its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 29.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 188,887 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 77,375 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in NetApp were worth $21,926,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 826.9% in the 4th 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 purchased a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $81.61 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $81.56 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $106.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $116.43. The company has a market capitalization of $16.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 6,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $577,668. The trade was a 78.92 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,627 shares of company stock worth $5,498,573 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.