NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Purchased by Freedom Investment Management Inc.

Freedom Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 31.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,171 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 515 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $252,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 34,703 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,028,000 after acquiring an additional 1,712 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $1,063,000. Bridgewater Associates LP lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 14,788 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,717,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689 shares during the period. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super purchased a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,906,000. Finally, Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $432,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total transaction of $54,579.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,395,024.75. This represents a 3.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,676 shares of company stock valued at $4,400,146. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital cut their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $125.07.

NetApp Stock Up 0.9 %

NTAP stock opened at $82.45 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average of $94.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $112.22. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $16.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.16, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.52%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 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.