NetApp, Inc. $NTAP Holdings Raised by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 14.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 255,693 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,000 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in NetApp were worth $26,180,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 38.3% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $315,000. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 9.9% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 46,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,986,000 after acquiring an additional 4,232 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 7.3% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 24,301 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 1,662 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 12.7% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 2,277 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Northland Securities boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wedbush raised their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $169.33.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.48, for a total value of $163,480.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 32,297 shares in the company, valued at $5,279,913.56. The trade was a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. The trade was a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 51,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,010,722. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $168.87 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $148.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $118.68. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $192.83.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.93 earnings per share. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 32.70%.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.