California State Teachers Retirement System Lowers Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

California State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 329,239 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 5,528 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.16% of NetApp worth $38,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in NetApp by 929.6% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp 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 transaction, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock worth $2,520,032 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wedbush reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Wall Street Zen cut NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $119.27.

NetApp Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.39 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $98.77. 3,087,574 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,924,877. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $20.09 billion, a PE ratio of 18.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $90.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $106.81.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

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.