Royal Bank of Canada Sells 26,282 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Royal Bank of Canada cut its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,408,716 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 26,282 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in NetApp were worth $163,523,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on NTAP. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. 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. Barclays raised NetApp from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered their target price on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $100.53 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $88.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $108.34.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total transaction of $1,011,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at $31,755,705.60. This represents a 3.09% 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 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.