NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Holdings Lifted by Plato Investment Management Ltd

Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 19.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,213 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,018 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,423,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 453,324 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 38.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 926.1% in the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after acquiring an additional 256,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 546.8% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 289,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,606,000 after acquiring an additional 244,746 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total value of $1,011,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at $31,755,705.60. This represents a 3.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total transaction of $54,579.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,395,024.75. The trade was a 3.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 target price (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday. Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of 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 shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $130.40.

NetApp Stock Down 4.1 %

NTAP stock opened at $95.73 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $95.18 and a 12-month high of $135.45. 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 company has a market cap of $19.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.60, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average of $119.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.54.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 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.