Board of the Pension Protection Fund Acquires New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 7,400 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $859,000.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup raised their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a "market perform" rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ NTAP traded up $2.67 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $119.36. The company had a trading volume of 1,257,599 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,350,344. The firm's 50 day moving average is $121.02 and its 200 day moving average is $122.97. The company has a market capitalization of $24.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week 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.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company's revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was 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 $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,149,531. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

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.