NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CAO Sells $208,266.00 in Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link.

NetApp Trading Down 2.6 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $121.24 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $70.82 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $123.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $117.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.95 billion, a PE ratio of 26.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. 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 prior year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 57.5% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $497,556,000 after buying an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 17.5% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in NetApp by 3.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 254.8% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of NetApp by 26.5% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $225,532,000 after purchasing an additional 450,263 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

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.