Ariel Investments LLC Sells 16,304 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Ariel Investments LLC reduced its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 391,603 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 16,304 shares during the quarter. Ariel Investments LLC owned 0.19% of NetApp worth $45,457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 1.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 429,343 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in NetApp by 20.4% during 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 during the period. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. grew its stake 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 valued at $335,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,919 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of 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 period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $306,440,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total value of $1,011,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at $31,755,705.60. This trade represents a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the 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 sale, the president now owns 11,928 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 37,676 shares of company stock valued at $3,586,451 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on NetApp from $153.00 to $113.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price target (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $123.07.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $2.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $95.09. The company had a trading volume of 698,117 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,925,650. The business's 50 day moving average price is $88.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $109.56. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week 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. The stock has a market cap of $19.34 billion, a PE ratio of 17.48, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business 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 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was 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.