Candriam S.C.A. Increases Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Candriam S.C.A. increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,516 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 820 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $93.77 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $91.16 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $117.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $120.47. The stock has a market cap of $19.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently 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.