EntryPoint Capital LLC Purchases New Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,475 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $287,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after buying an additional 429,343 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of NetApp by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after acquiring an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its stake in NetApp by 25.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,948,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $228,492,000 after purchasing an additional 397,871 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the business’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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $91.09 on Friday. 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 52-week low of $89.88 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $18.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $110.49 and its 200-day moving average is $117.41.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Susquehanna lowered NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded 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 research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.