Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. Sells 3,300 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 76.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,300 shares during the quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $116,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in NetApp by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 243,863 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,308,000 after acquiring an additional 15,930 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its position in NetApp by 36.3% during the fourth quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 125,740 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $14,594,000 after acquiring an additional 33,500 shares during the period. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $966,000. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $7,156,000. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 75,947 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,816,000 after acquiring an additional 1,322 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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 that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NTAP. Barclays raised shares of NetApp from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.07.

NetApp Trading Up 1.0%

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $101.53 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $89.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $108.24. The company has a market cap of $20.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.05%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

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.