NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Position Reduced by Retirement Systems of Alabama

Retirement Systems of Alabama decreased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,758 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 766 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,528,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,549 shares of company stock worth $3,864,316 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen upped their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays raised their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities upped their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $118.34 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month 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. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.08. The firm has a market cap of $24.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.