Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Has $752,000 Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund decreased its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,086 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 570 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in NetApp were worth $752,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the first quarter worth $35,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $119.34 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $77.08 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The company has a 50-day moving average of $121.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.23. The company has a market cap of $24.44 billion, a PE ratio of 23.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 40.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

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.