Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. Purchases 31,308 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 359,455 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 31,308 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned 0.18% of NetApp worth $42,035,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 267,785 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,074,000 after buying an additional 5,636 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 66.5% in the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 5,989 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 2,392 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $205,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its position in NetApp by 36.9% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 41,206 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,089,000 after purchasing an additional 11,106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in NetApp by 5.1% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 182,867 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $22,586,000 after purchasing an additional 8,896 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $88.40 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 company has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a PE ratio of 16.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $109.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $117.25. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.14 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

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 paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company 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.