Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Has $661,000 Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 75.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,697 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,442 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $661,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in shares of NetApp by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $395,000. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the period. AMJ Financial Wealth Management lifted its position in NetApp by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,998,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $93.28 on Tuesday. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $89.88 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The business has a 50 day moving average of $114.43 and a 200-day moving average of $118.83. The stock has a market cap of $18.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.15, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 38.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Barclays cut their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 3rd. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

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.