Lingohr Asset Management GmbH Buys New Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Lingohr Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 4,537 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $526,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,194,282. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays lowered their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $93.53 on Thursday. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $89.88 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $19.03 billion, a PE ratio of 17.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $113.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.46.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.22%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.