Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Has $22.62 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. raised its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 13.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 194,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 22,574 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. owned 0.10% of NetApp worth $22,618,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $395,000. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.9% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares during the period. Finally, Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth $4,059,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction 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 $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

NetApp Trading Down 2.3 %

NTAP opened at $93.56 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $92.59 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $19.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $118.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.28.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.