Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $1.28 Million Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 11,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 600 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1 %

NTAP stock opened at $119.06 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.89, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $120.19 and a 200-day moving average of $121.87.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total transaction of $54,579.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,395,024.75. This trade represents a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,403 shares of company stock worth $6,248,501. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

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.