Boston Common Asset Management LLC Acquires 17,131 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Boston Common Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 54.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 48,542 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,131 shares during the quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,635,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $1,977,000. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 19,368 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,248,000 after buying an additional 1,537 shares in the last quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 40,524 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,704,000 after buying an additional 1,984 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in NetApp by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,407 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $744,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gateway Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $419,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock worth $6,149,531 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.09 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $120.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.86.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

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.