BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S Raises Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 81.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 329,414 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 147,465 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S’s holdings in NetApp were worth $38,238,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,069,617,000 after buying an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $362,544,000 after acquiring an additional 529,471 shares during the period. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $335,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,919 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $306,440,000. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in NetApp by 53.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $82.61 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $16.80 billion, a PE ratio of 15.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $96.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $112.86.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,176 shares of company stock valued at $5,445,901 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $125.07.

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.