Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Grows Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $534,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $52,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $91.49 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $115.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $119.69. 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 $90.08 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.82, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.27%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup reduced their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Northland Securities lifted their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. The trade was a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 61,431 shares of company stock worth $7,309,224 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp 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.