Banque Pictet & Cie SA Invests $4.33 Million in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA bought 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 & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 37,293 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,329,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $5,225,000 after buying an additional 7,318 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 9.2% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 113,360 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 232.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $831,000 after buying an additional 4,705 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares of the company's stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upped their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.53.

NetApp Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $1.46 on Tuesday, reaching $120.52. 1,759,715 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,330,535. The company has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm's 50-day moving average is $120.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.81. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.