Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Buys 3,887 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 25.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 18,927 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,887 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $438,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $93.53 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.19, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $89.88 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $113.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $118.46. 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 Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

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.