Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 429,343 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 13.01% of NetApp worth $3,069,617,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Boston Partners grew its stake in NetApp by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $64,683,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its position in NetApp by 25.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,948,917 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $228,492,000 after acquiring an additional 397,871 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,194,282. The trade was a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % 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 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $2.69 during trading on Friday, reaching $88.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,662,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,848,948. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $109.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $117.25. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.14 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend 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%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $129.07.

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.