VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires Shares of 274,400 NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 274,400 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $29,237,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned 0.14% of NetApp at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Achmea Investment Management B.V. raised its position in NetApp by 55.8% in the first quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 221,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $19,492,000 after acquiring an additional 79,457 shares during the period. Burns Matteson Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $321,000. UNICOM Systems Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $13,483,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in NetApp by 20.5% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 59,357 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,247,000 after purchasing an additional 10,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its stake in NetApp by 6.7% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 42,428 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,727,000 after purchasing an additional 2,682 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $119.07 on Monday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $117.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.54 by ($0.35). NetApp had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 123.24%. The company had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.840-1.940 EPS. Research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 36.75%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total transaction of $94,936.73. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total value of $123,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,922,074.76. The trade was a 4.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,029 shares of company stock worth $2,444,194 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 price objective on NetApp in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Citigroup upped their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.40.

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.