Teacher Retirement System of Texas Has $76.41 Million Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 29.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 658,213 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 147,962 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in NetApp were worth $76,405,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $337,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,597 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of several research reports. Northland Securities lifted their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen reduced their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Barclays cut their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $93.53 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $89.88 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $113.44 and its 200-day moving average is $118.46. The firm has a market cap of $19.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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 given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.52%.

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.