Northern Trust Corp Purchases 550,607 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 24.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 550,607 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned 1.39% of NetApp worth $327,848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC grew its position in NetApp by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $96,873,000 after purchasing an additional 187,638 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 6.1% during the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,998 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $988,000 after buying an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth about $160,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 343.1% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 227,933 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $28,152,000 after acquiring an additional 176,495 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 19.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 433,616 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $55,009,000 after acquiring an additional 71,165 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Anders Gustafsson purchased 2,800 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 50,176 shares of company stock worth $5,095,701 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $89.75 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $90.71 and a 200-day moving average price of $110.74. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month 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. The company has a market capitalization of $18.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.50, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th were issued 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 yield of 2.32%. NetApp's payout ratio is 38.52%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Citigroup lowered their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $123.07.

NetApp Company 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.

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