Baird Financial Group Inc. Grows Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 28.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,090 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,894 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Bayesian Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $975,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after acquiring an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $247,000. AXA S.A. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 709,341 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $82,340,000 after acquiring an additional 24,242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Anders Gustafsson bought 2,800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at approximately $577,668. The trade was a 78.92% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total transaction of $1,011,840.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $31,755,705.60. The trade was a 3.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 37,224 shares of company stock valued at $3,531,872. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of NetApp from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $123.07.

NetApp Stock Up 0.2%

NTAP traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $99.82. The company had a trading volume of 1,894,379 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,918,656. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market capitalization of $20.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.35, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $88.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $108.74.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.