NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Boston Partners

Boston Partners boosted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 53.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners owned approximately 1.02% of NetApp worth $241,867,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $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 worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $39,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $92.26 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $89.88 and a one year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $113.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $118.63.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Northland Securities upped their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

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.