NetApp, Inc. (NTAP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.52 on October 23rd

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 28th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of 0.52 per share by the data storage provider on Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th.

NetApp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. NetApp has a payout ratio of 27.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect NetApp to earn $6.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.6%.

NetApp Stock Down 1.8 %

NetApp stock opened at $121.31 on Wednesday. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $117.71. The stock has a market cap of $24.97 billion, a PE ratio of 26.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Argus raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,637 shares of company stock worth $1,376,474 in the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.