Nuveen Asset Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Nuveen Asset Management LLC cut its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 563,738 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 64,680 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $65,439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 5,858.0% in the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,942,000 after buying an additional 880,406 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its position 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 valued at $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of 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 research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $124.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, 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 transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,755,705.60. This trade represents a 3.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 37,224 shares of company stock worth $3,531,872. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $100.53 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $88.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.39. The firm has a market cap of $20.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

NetApp 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.