NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Sold by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tevis Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $437,000. Keystone Financial Services acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $222,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $236,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 72.0% during the 2nd quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 11,186 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,441,000 after acquiring an additional 4,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in NetApp by 28.8% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 10,386 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 2,324 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. Argus boosted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $122.67.

NetApp Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $133.12 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.69, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $127.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $112.58. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its board has initiated a stock 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 purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

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

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.