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

First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,744,058 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 135,751 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $202,450,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 826.9% in 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 during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $125.07.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $82.61 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $96.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $112.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.52%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,445,901. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.