USS Investment Management Ltd Trims Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

USS Investment Management Ltd cut its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 15.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 63,017 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 11,384 shares during the quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd's holdings in NetApp were worth $7,313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $96,873,000 after purchasing an additional 187,638 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,204 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $372,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Diversify Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 77.8% in the 4th quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,323 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $503,000 after purchasing an additional 1,891 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 900 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $104,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Finally, Atomi Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,415 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $280,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Loop Capital cut their price objective on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $121.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 6,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at $577,668. This represents a 78.92% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of NTAP traded down $1.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $98.00. The stock had a trading volume of 2,840,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,923,547. The business's fifty day moving average is $89.62 and its 200 day moving average is $107.89. 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 current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $19.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. 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.