Boston Trust Walden Corp Acquires 142,073 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Boston Trust Walden Corp boosted its NetApp stake by 29% in the first quarter, buying 142,073 more shares and ending with 631,452 shares worth about $64.7 million.
• Several analysts raised price targets on NetApp, but the overall stance remains cautious: the stock has a Hold consensus with an average price target of $169.33.
• NetApp reported quarterly EPS of $2.03, missing estimates, even though revenue of $1.95 billion beat expectations and rose 12.5% year over year; the company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share.

Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 29.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 631,452 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 142,073 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned about 0.32% of NetApp worth $64,654,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $458,060,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $14,869,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 106.8% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 262,732 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $28,136,000 after acquiring an additional 135,715 shares during the period. National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 180,917 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $19,374,000 after acquiring an additional 21,643 shares during the period. Finally, Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at $21,234,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $114.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $169.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $33,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,800. This trade represents a 20.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 46,806 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,246,504.92. This trade represents a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,106,972. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $154.17 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $141.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $93.69 and a 12-month high of $192.83.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.93 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 10th. NetApp's payout ratio is 32.70%.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc NASDAQ: NTAP is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp's offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company's product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.

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