NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Sells $397,393.59 in Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $1.29 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $123.49. 1,692,903 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,809,319. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.35. The company has a market cap of $25.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $77.30 and a one year high of $135.01. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. On average, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. State Street Corp boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after buying an additional 199,384 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after acquiring an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake 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 period. Legal & General Group Plc raised 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 buying an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 11.9% during the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $208,133,000 after buying an additional 211,204 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.