Cesar Cernuda Sells 19,696 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.56 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $87.84. The stock had a trading volume of 2,943,099 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,853,334. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $86.41 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $17.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.15, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $109.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.26.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Barclays lowered their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup dropped their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,069,617,000 after buying an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after acquiring an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.