Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Acquires 222 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,861 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $564,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, 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 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $94.87 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.30 billion, a PE ratio of 17.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $92.59 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The business has a 50-day moving average of $118.42 and a 200 day moving average of $121.10. 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 Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 target price (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup cut their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. TD Cowen cut their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

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.