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

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

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

• On Monday, October 21st, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00.

NetApp Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of NTAP traded up $2.86 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $122.20. The company had a trading volume of 2,545,240 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,809,838. The stock has a market cap of $25.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.24, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $121.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.08 and a 52 week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in 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 worth $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,074,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.