NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership reduced its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 31.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,453,913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,115,413 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in NetApp were worth $284,850,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.7% during the fourth 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 period. State Street Corp lifted its position in NetApp by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after acquiring an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $335,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,919 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $306,440,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NTAP. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $88.40 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $88.14 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a 50-day moving average of $109.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $117.25.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 2.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.