NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Position Lessened by State of Alaska Department of Revenue

State of Alaska Department of Revenue decreased its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 18.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 68,602 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 15,125 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in NetApp were worth $7,200,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in NetApp by 57.5% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $497,556,000 after buying an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $232,502,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 254.8% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after buying an additional 1,654,942 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,808,051 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $159,398,000 after buying an additional 24,416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 40.1% during the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,771,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,183,000 after buying an additional 507,317 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.38 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $130.26. 904,044 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,001,143. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a market cap of $26.81 billion, a PE ratio of 28.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s fifty day moving average is $116.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $102.04. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $131.02.

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

NetApp declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 42,205 shares of company stock valued at $5,193,529 in the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Argus increased their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

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.