American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 132,370 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 204.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 197,240 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 132,370 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of NetApp worth $22,896,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in NetApp by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 25.7% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,948,917 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $228,492,000 after buying an additional 397,871 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $156,268,000 after acquiring an additional 113,360 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded down $8.88 during trading on Thursday, hitting $81.61. 3,332,630 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,867,238. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $81.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.43. 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 Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $129.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 451 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,627 shares of company stock worth $5,498,573 over the last quarter. Company 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.