Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 1,231 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kentucky Retirement Systems lowered its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,321 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,231 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in NetApp were worth $1,769,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NTAP. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in NetApp by 11.4% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 19,411 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,038,000 after purchasing an additional 1,990 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 46.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at about $208,000. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in NetApp by 221.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,731,000 after purchasing an additional 207,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pitcairn Co. boosted its position in NetApp by 18.3% during the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 9,486 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $996,000 after purchasing an additional 1,466 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $119.34 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $121.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $122.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.31, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.08 and a 52 week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. Sell-side 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 was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.62%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on NTAP. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

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.