Royal Bank of Canada Sells 26,282 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Royal Bank of Canada lowered its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,408,716 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 26,282 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned approximately 0.69% of NetApp worth $163,523,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 75,947 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $8,816,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322 shares during the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $8,298,000. Redwood Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $1,433,000. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 41,208 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $4,783,000 after acquiring an additional 3,938 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 35.2% during the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 63,473 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,368,000 after acquiring an additional 16,515 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 target price (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America raised NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. 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. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. 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 an average price target of $121.40.

NetApp Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $0.21 during trading on Thursday, hitting $99.78. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,520,228 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,915,412. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $20.30 billion, a PE ratio of 18.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.13. 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 Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at $577,668. The trade was a 78.92% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,194,282. The trade was a 3.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,724 shares of company stock worth $2,520,032 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.