Atlatl Advisers LLC Acquires 33,497 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Atlatl Advisers sharply increased its NetApp position by purchasing 33,497 additional shares in the third quarter, bringing its holdings to 33,716 shares valued at approximately $7.1 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 92.17% of NetApp.
• NetApp reported a strong quarter, with earnings of $2.58 per share versus the $2.12 consensus estimate and revenue of $2.02 billion, up 29.9% year over year. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating with an average price target of $213.20.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, or $2.08 annually, implying a 1.0% yield and a 29.34% payout ratio. Meanwhile, insiders have sold 173,524 shares worth about $35.0 million over the past three months.

Atlatl Advisers LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 15,295.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 33,716 shares of the data storage provider's stock after purchasing an additional 33,497 shares during the period. NetApp makes up 1.7% of Atlatl Advisers LLC's holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Atlatl Advisers LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $7,083,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $235,682,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $2,210,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,571,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 214.6% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 7,727 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,623,000 after acquiring an additional 5,271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Insight Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $5,845,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on NTAP. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of NetApp from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, Argus set a $225.00 price objective on NetApp in a research report on Friday, September 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $213.20.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $215.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.39, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $202.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $167.11. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $93.69 and a fifty-two week high of $240.87.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 29.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth O'Callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.42, for a total value of $237,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 29,737 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,060,158.54. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,450 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $690,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,814 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,562,800. The trade was a 21.21% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 173,524 shares of company stock valued at $35,018,126. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises data centers, public clouds and hybrid environments. Its offerings support enterprise applications, artificial intelligence workloads, business analytics, backup and disaster recovery.

The company's portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid-flash storage systems, the ONTAP data management operating system, StorageGRID object storage and Keystone storage-as-a-service.

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