OV Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

OV Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,012 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 851 shares during the period. OV Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,510,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $306,440,000. Boston Partners lifted its stake in NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in NetApp by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $64,683,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Anders Gustafsson bought 2,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $577,668. This represents a 78.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,627 shares of company stock valued at $5,498,573. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 0.6 %

NTAP opened at $87.84 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $86.40 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $109.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $117.06. 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 company has a market cap of $17.87 billion, a PE ratio of 16.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

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 given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. 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.