Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Increases Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 71,531 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,632 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays dropped their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

NetApp Trading Down 1.5 %

NTAP opened at $92.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $89.88 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $112.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $118.27.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 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.