Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Takes Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,023 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $351,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 826.9% during the 4th 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 period. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its stake in NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the transaction, the president now 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 37,224 shares of company stock worth $3,531,872. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price objective (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.07.

NetApp Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $100.53 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $88.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.46. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month 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 company has a market capitalization of $20.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

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.