AQR Capital Management LLC Has $99.87 Million Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

AQR Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 45.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 860,350 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 715,719 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned 0.42% of NetApp worth $99,869,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after acquiring an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. grew its position in NetApp by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $335,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,919 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in NetApp by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $327,848,000 after purchasing an additional 550,607 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $306,440,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, 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 transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,095,701 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.0 %

NTAP stock traded up $0.93 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $93.26. 339,558 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,926,836. The firm's 50-day moving average is $89.43 and its 200-day moving average is $110.03. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $18.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.14, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. 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 Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's payout ratio is 38.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of NetApp from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $123.07.

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.