Boston Trust Walden Corp Sells 456,854 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Boston Trust Walden cut its NetApp stake by 74.3% in the third quarter, selling 456,854 shares and retaining 158,220 shares valued at about $33.2 million.
• NetApp reported quarterly EPS of $2.58, beating the $2.12 consensus, while revenue of $2.02 billion exceeded expectations and rose 29.9% year over year.
• Analysts’ consensus rating is “Moderate Buy,” with an average price target of $205.24; the stock opened at $169.38, down 9.7% as reported.

Boston Trust Walden Corp cut its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 74.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 158,220 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 456,854 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned 0.08% of NetApp worth $33,239,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Provenance Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 56.9% in the third quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 204 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $37,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in NetApp by 90.8% during the third quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 292 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bell Investment Advisors Inc bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $55,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Carrie Palin sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.43, for a total transaction of $1,082,150.00. Following the sale, the director owned 6,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,441,423.80. This trade represents a 42.88% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total value of $1,159,547.40. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,747 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,512,291.87. This trade represents a 43.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 173,524 shares of company stock worth $35,018,126. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. Loop Capital set a $300.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Argus set a $225.00 target price on NetApp and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on NetApp from $209.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $205.24.

NetApp Stock Down 9.7%

NTAP stock opened at $169.38 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.26, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.52. 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 fifty day moving average of $204.63 and a 200-day moving average of $151.55. 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 quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. NetApp's revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.15 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 9th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.34%.

NetApp Company Profile

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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