Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Has $564,000 Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,861 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 222 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $564,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $516,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 3,132 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the period. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 2.0% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,448 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $796,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Up 1.4 %

NTAP opened at $94.87 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $92.59 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $118.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $19.30 billion, a PE ratio of 17.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 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.