Retirement Systems of Alabama Boosts Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 546.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund 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’s holdings in NetApp were worth $33,606,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Truist Financial Corp raised its position in shares of NetApp by 16.1% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 21,417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,759,000 after purchasing an additional 2,974 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in NetApp by 28.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 36,190 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,661,000 after buying an additional 7,960 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $566,000. Czech National Bank raised its position in NetApp by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 41,875 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,172,000 after buying an additional 2,548 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in NetApp by 30.0% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,805 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 648 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $123.72 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.74, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $120.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $122.13. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid 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 (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at $34,017,276. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.