California Public Employees Retirement System Decreases Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 950,459 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 23,568 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.47% of NetApp worth $110,329,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its stake in NetApp by 28.9% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 940,475 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $109,556,000 after buying an additional 210,746 shares during the period. Allianz SE acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,877,000. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $335,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,919 shares during the last quarter. Allstate Corp acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $692,000. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS boosted its holdings in NetApp by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 37,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,333,000 after purchasing an additional 551 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Anders Gustafsson purchased 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. The trade was a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,627 shares of company stock valued at $5,498,573 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $87.84 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $109.13 and a 200-day moving average of $117.06. The firm has a market cap of $17.87 billion, a PE ratio of 16.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $86.40 and a 12 month high of $135.45.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

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.