NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Acquired by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,208 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,938 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $96,873,000 after acquiring an additional 187,638 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $222,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 6,407 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $744,000 after buying an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 30.6% during the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 11,021 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,279,000 after acquiring an additional 2,584 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,204 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $372,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NTAP. Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. 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. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered 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. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $101.53 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $20.65 billion, a PE ratio of 18.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $89.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $108.24. 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.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

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.