First Trust Advisors LP Has $202.45 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,744,058 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 135,751 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.86% of NetApp worth $202,450,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 quarter, insiders have sold 50,176 shares of company stock valued at $5,445,901. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $125.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $82.61 on Friday. 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 market cap of $16.80 billion, a PE ratio of 15.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a 50 day moving average of $96.24 and a 200-day moving average of $112.79. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

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.