California Public Employees Retirement System Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,270,712 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,512 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.62% of NetApp worth $112,026,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $27,000. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, First Pacific Financial acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $29,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. TD Cowen upped their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI upped their target price on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.60.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $99.42 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.92 and a 1-year high of $112.48. The business has a 50-day moving average of $99.38 and a 200-day moving average of $88.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $20.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.02 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.45%.

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.