Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Has $6.59 Million Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI cut its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 56,753 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 877 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in NetApp were worth $6,588,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 19.6% in the fourth quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 5,118 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $594,000 after acquiring an additional 840 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 77.4% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 75,047 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,711,000 after purchasing an additional 32,745 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in NetApp by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 196,726 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $22,836,000 after purchasing an additional 13,859 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Personal CFO Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 2,265 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $263,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total transaction of $1,011,840.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,755,705.60. The trade was a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,194,282. The trade was a 3.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 61,431 shares of company stock valued at $7,309,224 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Barclays cut their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush restated 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 cut 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. Finally, Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $90.92 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $116.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $119.89. The stock has a market cap of $18.49 billion, a PE ratio of 16.71, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $90.08 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.29%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

NetApp 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.