NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Position Decreased by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 226,822 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 2,930 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in NetApp were worth $29,215,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at about $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in NetApp by 57.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $497,556,000 after purchasing an additional 2,059,574 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 254.8% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after purchasing an additional 950,204 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $249,307,000 after purchasing an additional 773,773 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NTAP. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.67.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $133.12 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $127.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $112.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.40 billion, a PE ratio of 28.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

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.