Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Grows Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 13.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 194,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,574 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $22,618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,287,432 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,445,000 after acquiring an additional 27,857 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,951 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $247,000. Finally, LGT Group Foundation boosted its stake in NetApp by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 125,410 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $14,558,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price target (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.07.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $93.56 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $92.59 and a one year high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.20, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $118.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $121.28. 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 firm 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 of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.52%.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.