State of Michigan Retirement System Sells 700 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

State of Michigan Retirement System lowered its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 69,529 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 700 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in NetApp were worth $7,298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 82.9% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 42,205 shares of company stock valued at $5,193,529. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.36 on Tuesday, hitting $129.88. The company had a trading volume of 1,751,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,009,850. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $131.02. The stock has a market cap of $26.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.99, a P/E/G ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $116.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 43.10%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.81.

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.