QRG Capital Management Inc. Has $6.12 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 52,724 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,537 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $6,120,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after acquiring an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in NetApp by 38.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares during the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA raised its position in NetApp by 926.1% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after purchasing an additional 256,028 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in NetApp by 546.8% during the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 289,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $33,606,000 after purchasing an additional 244,746 shares during the last quarter. 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 on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction 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 represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on NTAP. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.07.

NetApp Stock Down 15.4 %

NetApp stock opened at $100.00 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $88.49 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.86. The stock has a market cap of $20.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

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.