Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Trims Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reduced its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 30.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 194,266 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 86,192 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.10% of NetApp worth $22,550,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Norges Bank bought a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $306,440,000. Boston Partners grew its stake in NetApp by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $64,683,000. Finally, 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 valued at $362,544,000 after buying an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock traded down $0.21 on Friday, reaching $87.96. 491,144 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,923,650. The company has a market cap of $17.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $93.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $111.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's payout ratio is 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,755,705.60. The trade was a 3.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,095,701. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $125.07.

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.