NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Cerity Partners LLC

Cerity Partners LLC lessened its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 45,116 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 4,262 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,296,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 1.8% in the 4th 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. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $438,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in 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 last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on NTAP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price target (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.07.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $82.64 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $114.19. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $16.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.52%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 50,176 shares of company stock valued at $5,445,901. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company 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.