Retirement Systems of Alabama Increases Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 546.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 289,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 244,746 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned about 0.14% of NetApp worth $33,606,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $44,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $52,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $123.72 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $25.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $120.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.13. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on NTAP. Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.