State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Has $8.67 Million Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,680 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 1,945 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,669,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Bank of America lifted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.53.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $120.02 and its 200-day moving average is $121.81. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total transaction of $54,579.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,553 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,395,024.75. This represents a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 52,403 shares of company stock worth $6,248,501. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.