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

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were 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 owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

George Kurian also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 16th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00.
• On Monday, November 18th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $126.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $121.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 38.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at $27,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $51,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Barclays increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

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.