Raymond James Financial Inc. Takes Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 557,224 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $64,683,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.27% of NetApp as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in NetApp by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $156,268,000 after buying an additional 113,360 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,287,432 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,445,000 after buying an additional 27,857 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $92.05 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $116.94 and a 200-day moving average of $120.19. The stock has a market cap of $18.72 billion, a PE ratio of 16.92, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $90.12 and a 52-week high of $135.45. 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 38.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, 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 research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

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.