Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 12,600 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,111,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in NetApp by 689.7% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 804,237 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,026,000 after purchasing an additional 702,391 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 10,320.5% in the 3rd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 577,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,821,000 after buying an additional 571,962 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in NetApp by 31.7% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,109,662 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $84,202,000 after buying an additional 266,812 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC raised its position in NetApp by 25.0% during the third quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 899,155 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $68,228,000 after acquiring an additional 179,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 49.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 362,959 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,541,000 after acquiring an additional 119,955 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at $14,877,807.03. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 1.5 %

NetApp stock opened at $99.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $88.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.52 billion, a PE ratio of 22.60, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.92 and a 52 week high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 45.45%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Wedbush raised their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.60.

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.