Swiss National Bank Reduces Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Swiss National Bank lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 578,500 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 32,400 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in NetApp were worth $67,152,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $64,683,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in NetApp by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,948,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $228,492,000 after buying an additional 397,871 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA grew its holdings in NetApp by 926.1% in the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after buying an additional 256,028 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 61,431 shares of company stock worth $7,309,224 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $91.98 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $119.11. 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 1 year low of $89.88 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.71 billion, a PE ratio of 16.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

NetApp Company 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.