Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Boosts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 8,409 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 614 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $976,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $287,000. Corebridge Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 7.9% during the 4th quarter. Corebridge Financial Inc. now owns 114,715 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,316,000 after purchasing an additional 8,442 shares during the last quarter. FCA Corp TX boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. FCA Corp TX now owns 8,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,069,617,000 after buying an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stevens Capital Management LP increased its position in NetApp by 277.0% during the 4th quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 8,860 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,028,000 after buying an additional 6,510 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Down 1.7 %

NTAP stock opened at $92.75 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $111.07 and its 200 day moving average is $117.60. The firm has a market cap of $18.87 billion, a PE ratio of 17.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $89.88 and a one year high of $135.45. 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 Announces Dividend

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 $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 yield of 2.24%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, 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 transaction of $48,882.24. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on 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 given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

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.