Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Raises Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund increased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 98.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,069 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,983 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,401,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after buying an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in NetApp by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 232.2% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,705 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. TD Cowen increased their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $120.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $121.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.15, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total value of $54,579.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,395,024.75. This trade represents a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.