Foster & Motley Inc. Sells 4,342 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Foster & Motley Inc. sold 4,342 shares of NetApp, Inc., reducing its stake by 10.5%, and now owns 36,847 shares worth approximately $3.93 million.
• Several hedge funds increased their stakes in NetApp, with 92.17% of the stock owned by institutional investors.
• Analysts have set a new average price target for NetApp at $122.40, with ratings ranging from "Hold" to "Buy" from various investment firms.

Foster & Motley Inc. reduced its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 36,847 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 4,342 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $3,926,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 62.8% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,141 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 6.6% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 51,950 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $4,563,000 after purchasing an additional 3,196 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.7% during the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,311 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $203,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 29.4% in the first quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,837 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 872 shares during the period. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its holdings in NetApp by 28.9% in the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 35,029 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,076,000 after buying an additional 7,850 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. William Blair restated a "market perform" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $122.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total value of $94,936.73. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.00, for a total transaction of $119,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 22,628 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,692,732. This trade represents a 4.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,529 shares of company stock worth $3,362,874 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company's stock.

NetApp Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $119.07 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $117.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.59. The firm has a market cap of $23.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.04, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.54 by ($0.35). NetApp had a return on equity of 123.24% and a net margin of 17.77%.The company had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.840-1.940 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.75%.

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.

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