NetApp (NTAP) to Release Earnings on Wednesday

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) will release its earnings data after the market closes on Wednesday, August 28th. Analysts expect NetApp to post earnings of $1.46 per share for the quarter. Individual interested in listening to the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. NetApp’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect NetApp to post $5 EPS for the current fiscal year and $6 EPS for the next fiscal year.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $133.12 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.69, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $127.39 and its 200 day moving average is $112.58. NetApp has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Argus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.37% 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.