NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Acquired by Boston Partners

Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 53.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Boston Partners’ holdings in NetApp were worth $241,867,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of NetApp by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $395,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the period. AMJ Financial Wealth Management increased its position in NetApp by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,998,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares during the period. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities raised their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $92.26 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $18.77 billion, a PE ratio of 16.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $118.63. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $89.88 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. 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 three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.