Swiss National Bank Cuts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Swiss National Bank lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 578,500 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 32,400 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.28% of NetApp worth $67,152,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 61,431 shares of company stock valued at $7,309,224 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $91.98 on Friday. 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 50 day moving average price of $114.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $119.11. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $89.88 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $18.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

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.