Insider Selling: NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CAO Sells 1,685 Shares of 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 stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

NetApp Trading Up 2.3 %

NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $2.77 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $124.45. The stock had a trading volume of 1,619,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,899,645. 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 one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.60, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $123.31 and a 200 day moving average of $117.04.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 44.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group boosted their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Argus upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in NetApp by 68.1% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 454 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 15,847 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,211 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,522 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,280,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794 shares during the period. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 40.1% in the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 10,411 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $918,000 after acquiring an additional 2,980 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 20.7% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $205,000 after buying an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.