NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stake Raised by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 65.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,615 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 35,172 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $7,812,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,823,258 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,143,331,000 after purchasing an additional 294,399 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in NetApp by 70.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $691,339,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439,053 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.8% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,687,364 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $298,809,000 after purchasing an additional 82,923 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in NetApp by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,304,331 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $138,398,000 after buying an additional 253,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $138,383,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock traded down $3.05 on Friday, reaching $101.81. 1,346,823 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,610,485. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $97.73 and a 200-day moving average of $87.72. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $60.92 and a twelve month high of $112.48. The firm has a market cap of $21.01 billion, a PE ratio of 23.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. Wedbush boosted their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $120.00 price objective (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI upped their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group upped their price target on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Argus upgraded NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $97.94.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 871 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company's stock, valued at $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total transaction of $862,240.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 261,202 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 31,871 shares of company stock valued at $3,262,645. Insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.

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.