Boston Common Asset Management LLC Acquires 17,131 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Boston Common Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 54.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 48,542 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 17,131 shares during the quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $5,635,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 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 during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at $48,074,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 38.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares during the period. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 926.1% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $35,022,000 after acquiring an additional 256,028 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities raised their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $2.11 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $122.09. 1,821,302 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,269,484. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $120.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.82.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 451 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,149,531 over the last ninety days. 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.