Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Increases Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp lifted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 65,476 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 462 shares during the quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its position in shares of NetApp by 63.2% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 3,261 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 1,263 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $58,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 18,216 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,606,000 after buying an additional 1,087 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 240,382 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $21,192,000 after buying an additional 29,404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 1,270,712 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $112,026,000 after buying an additional 6,512 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were 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 $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed 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 report on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.60.

NetApp Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.46 on Thursday, hitting $99.60. 82,872 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,848,830. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $60.92 and a 52-week high of $112.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $20.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $99.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $89.01.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

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.