Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Sells 7,556 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lessened its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 8.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,609 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 7,556 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio's holdings in NetApp were worth $9,956,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 17.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $48,074,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna restated a "positive" rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $137.40.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP traded up $0.85 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $123.51. 1,207,524 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,855,596. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $122.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.91. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $25.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.63, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares of the company's stock, valued at $34,017,276. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About NetApp

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.