NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Securian Asset Management Inc.

Securian Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 11,005 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 339 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,277,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 111.0% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,565,000 after buying an additional 6,666 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 42.1% in the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,719 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after buying an additional 1,101 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $295,000. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.7% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 236,407 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,198,000 after buying an additional 6,170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Huntington National Bank increased its holdings in NetApp by 22.2% in the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,474 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Northland Securities raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective 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, February 28th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 61,431 shares of company stock valued at $7,309,224. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 2.1 %

NTAP stock opened at $91.98 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.91, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. 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 one year low of $89.88 and a one year high of $135.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $114.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $119.20.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

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.