American Century Companies Inc. Has $22.90 Million Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 204.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 197,240 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 132,370 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.10% of NetApp worth $22,896,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in NetApp by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after buying an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management raised its holdings in NetApp by 120.7% during the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,998,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in NetApp by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 232.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,705 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value 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 approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 30,931 shares of company stock worth $3,722,979. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $88.40 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $88.14 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $109.82 and a 200-day moving average of $117.26.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.35%. NetApp’s payout ratio 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.