Pitcairn Co. Raises Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Pitcairn Co. raised its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 13,256 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 368 shares during the quarter. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,539,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 2.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 267,785 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,074,000 after acquiring an additional 5,636 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in NetApp by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 8,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 124.2% in the 3rd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 42,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,194,000 after purchasing an additional 23,305 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in shares of NetApp by 20.3% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 27,141 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,352,000 after purchasing an additional 4,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $336,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $81.61 on Friday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $106.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.43. The firm has a market cap of $16.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.00, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $80.55 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 50,627 shares of company stock worth $5,498,573 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.