Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Sells 6,167 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund lowered its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 51.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,902 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 6,167 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in NetApp were worth $518,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $438,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $337,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Utah Retirement Systems grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 34,152 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,964,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $534,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 36,998 shares of company stock valued at $3,366,108 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.79.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8%

NTAP stock opened at $106.13 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.42. The business has a 50-day moving average of $96.69 and a 200-day moving average of $104.55. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

NetApp 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.