NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Bought by FIL Ltd

FIL Ltd grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 86.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,565 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,122 shares during the quarter. FIL Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $530,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $306,440,000. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,867,000 after acquiring an additional 729,394 shares in 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 acquiring an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $64,683,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in NetApp by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,176 shares of company stock valued at $5,445,901 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $82.64 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. 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 $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $100.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $114.11.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 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.