Short Interest in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Decreases By 21.8%

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) saw a large decrease in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 7,910,000 shares, a decrease of 21.8% from the February 13th total of 10,120,000 shares. Currently, 3.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,830,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.3 days.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 528 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. This trade represents a 3.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 42.1% during the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,719 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $459,000 after purchasing an additional 1,101 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank lifted its position in NetApp by 22.2% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,474 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $182,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in NetApp by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 30,627 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,783,000 after acquiring an additional 2,814 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 7,383 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $912,000 after buying an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 66.0% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 72,137 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $8,910,000 after buying an additional 28,693 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Citigroup dropped their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Bank of America raised NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.89 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $93.15. 686,636 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,721,689. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a 52 week low of $89.88 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $18.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.11, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $113.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $118.63.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.52%.

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.