J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Boosts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG boosted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 108.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,542 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 23,214 shares during the quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG's holdings in NetApp were worth $5,170,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $96,873,000 after acquiring an additional 187,638 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 73.1% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,608 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $931,000 after purchasing an additional 3,213 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $988,000 after buying an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth $160,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 343.1% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 227,933 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $28,152,000 after acquiring an additional 176,495 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total value of $1,011,840.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at $31,755,705.60. This represents a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business'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 transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,095,701. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Up 3.9 %

NetApp stock traded up $3.29 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $88.17. The stock had a trading volume of 1,812,990 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,929,242. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $93.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $111.78. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. 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 company has a market capitalization of $17.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.21, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. TD Cowen lowered their price target 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $125.07.

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.