Retirement Systems of Alabama Purchases 230,111 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 79.5% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 519,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 230,111 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in NetApp were worth $45,643,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 826.9% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in NetApp by 929.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew its position in NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $102.75 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The company has a 50 day moving average of $95.39 and a 200-day moving average of $105.21. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $20.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.42.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 296,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,208,812.90. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at $577,668. The trade was a 78.92% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,998 shares of company stock worth $3,366,108 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reiterated a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.79.

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.