NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 221,049 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 14,540 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky owned 0.11% of NetApp worth $28,471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in NetApp by 706.3% during the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Argus upped their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $123.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $25.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.62, a P/E/G ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $123.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $117.58. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.