Quantbot Technologies LP Makes New $711,000 Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 6,126 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $711,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in 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 period. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Susquehanna cut 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 research note on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price objective (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $92.75 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $111.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 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 company has a market cap of $18.87 billion, a PE ratio of 17.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.