Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Sells 2,148 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board cut its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 19.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,750 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,148 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,016,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $306,440,000. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after acquiring an additional 729,394 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after acquiring an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $64,683,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in NetApp by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Down 1.0 %

NTAP stock opened at $81.35 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $97.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $113.41. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $16.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson purchased 2,800 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 6,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $577,668. The trade was a 78.92 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,445,901. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna lowered NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $127.73.

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.