NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian Sells 8,500 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $119.41 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $123.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $119.85.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $225,532,000 after purchasing an additional 450,263 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.9% in the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $208,133,000 after purchasing an additional 211,204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $223,806,000 after purchasing an additional 196,952 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.