NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Kentucky Retirement Systems

Kentucky Retirement Systems reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,321 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,231 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in NetApp were worth $1,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $119.34 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.08 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The stock has a market cap of $24.44 billion, a PE ratio of 23.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.62%.

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.