Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Acquires Shares of 37,165 NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 37,165 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,314,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after acquiring an additional 199,384 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after acquiring an additional 453,324 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 25.7% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,948,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $228,492,000 after acquiring an additional 397,871 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 9.2% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,287,432 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,445,000 after acquiring an additional 27,857 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 1.1 %

NTAP stock opened at $92.26 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $18.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.96, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $118.63. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $89.88 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related 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 completion of 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % 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 worth $6,252,759 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital cut their price objective on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

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.