Natixis Advisors LLC Has $8.52 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 73,403 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,266 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,521,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in NetApp by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $395,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares in the last quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management increased its holdings in NetApp by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,998,000 after purchasing an additional 37,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $92.10 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $89.88 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $112.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $118.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.73 billion, a PE ratio of 16.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. Loop Capital lowered their target price on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Northland Securities upped their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

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.