Strategy Asset Managers LLC Trims Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Strategy Asset Managers LLC lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,403 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 129 shares during the period. Strategy Asset Managers LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $306,440,000. Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after acquiring an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of NetApp by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after acquiring an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $64,683,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital decreased 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. Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $88.40 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $109.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $88.14 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.