Lazard Asset Management LLC Buys 47,857 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 29.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 209,295 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 47,857 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned about 0.10% of NetApp worth $24,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 5,858.0% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $241,867,000 after acquiring an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 276.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $103,431,000 after acquiring an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Barclays raised shares of NetApp from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $124.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at $31,755,705.60. This trade represents a 3.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 37,224 shares of company stock valued at $3,531,872. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 0.7%

NTAP traded up $0.71 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $100.53. 1,698,642 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,919,271. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The stock's 50-day moving average is $88.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $108.46. The stock has a market cap of $20.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. 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 firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's payout ratio is 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.