Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 2,330 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Prudential Financial Inc. lowered its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 143,418 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,330 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of NetApp worth $16,648,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.8 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $91.09 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $89.88 and a one year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company has a market cap of $18.53 billion, a PE ratio of 16.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.41.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. 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 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp 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.