Mizuho Securities USA LLC Raises Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 45.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,409 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,079 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $2,253,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $711,000. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $59,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 3,013 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $350,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 71,531 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $8,303,000 after acquiring an additional 4,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lingohr Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $526,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Trading Down 3.0 %

NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $2.69 on Friday, hitting $88.40. 2,662,211 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,848,947. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $87.70 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company's 50-day moving average price is $110.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.41.

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NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,194,282. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America raised NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 target price (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $129.07.

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.