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

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 215,749 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 8,189 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.11% of NetApp worth $18,951,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 5,858.0% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its holdings in NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $64,683,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This trade represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,302 shares of company stock valued at $1,590,514 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley restated a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Citigroup increased their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.79.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $107.61 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $99.51 and its 200 day moving average is $103.96. The stock has a market cap of $21.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.93%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.62%.

About NetApp

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.