Nebula Research & Development LLC Invests $723,000 in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 6,231 shares of the data storage provider's stock, valued at approximately $723,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in NetApp by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares during the last quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. lifted its stake in NetApp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $335,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,919 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $306,440,000. Finally, Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wedbush reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $123.07.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,095,701. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $1.89 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $89.75. 2,861,446 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,932,409. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $91.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $110.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year 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.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. 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 2.32%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.