DnB Asset Management AS Has $4.33 Million Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

DnB Asset Management AS lifted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 37,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 551 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,333,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. denkapparat Operations GmbH bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $235,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its holdings in NetApp by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 290,517 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $33,723,000 after acquiring an additional 30,527 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in NetApp by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 90,619 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $10,519,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $2,473,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $306,440,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup decreased their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 target price (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $88.40 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $109.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $117.26. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $86.95 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. 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 Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,931 shares of company stock valued at $3,722,979 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.