Public Sector Pension Investment Board Acquires 2,879 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 57.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,879 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,017,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.3% in the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.5% in the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.6% in the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 17,754 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,287,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.1% in the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 5,051 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $651,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $123.02 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $122.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $117.75. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.51, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474. Insiders own 0.37% 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.