Allstate Corp Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 5,961 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $692,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 2.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 267,785 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,074,000 after purchasing an additional 5,636 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 66.5% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 5,989 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $740,000 after buying an additional 2,392 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $205,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in NetApp by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 8,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,099,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the period. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in NetApp by 124.2% during the 3rd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 42,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,194,000 after acquiring an additional 23,305 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,627 shares of company stock valued at $5,498,573. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $87.84 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $86.40 and a twelve month 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 has a market cap of $17.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $109.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.06.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.