Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Cuts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC decreased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 590,049 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 12,918 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned approximately 0.29% of NetApp worth $68,493,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after acquiring an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in NetApp by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after buying an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $335,215,000 after buying an additional 12,919 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $306,440,000. Finally, Boston Partners raised 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 buying an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 452 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total value of $54,579.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,395,024.75. This represents a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,095,701 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.65 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $90.40. 373,986 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,926,309. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $18.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $90.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $110.74. 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 company 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. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Susquehanna cut NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $153.00 to $113.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $123.07.

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.