Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Trims Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lessened its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 76,970 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,639 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,935,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $98.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.93 billion, a PE ratio of 18.01, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $89.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $107.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock worth $2,520,032. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.40.

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.