Axa S.A. Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

AXA S.A. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 709,341 shares of the data storage provider's stock after buying an additional 24,242 shares during the period. AXA S.A. owned 0.35% of NetApp worth $82,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its stake in NetApp by 929.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. 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 research note on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $123.07.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Anders Gustafsson purchased 2,800 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average price of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at $577,668. The trade was a 78.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 37,676 shares of company stock valued at $3,586,451. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock traded down $0.83 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $92.26. 1,864,671 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,926,689. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $18.77 billion, a PE ratio of 16.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $88.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $109.79. 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. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

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.