Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Has $10.99 Million Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 94,682 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,040 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $10,991,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price 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. Loop Capital dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $92.25 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $89.88 and a 1 year high of $135.45. 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 firm has a market cap of $18.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.96, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $112.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $118.07.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.