Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Acquires 68,428 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its position in NetApp, Inc. by 391.6% in the 1st quarter, acquiring an additional 68,428 shares to reach a total of 85,903 shares worth approximately $7.5 million.
• The company recently reported earnings of $1.93 EPS, surpassing analysts' expectations, alongside a revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter.
• NetApp announced a quarterly dividend of $0.52, yielding 1.9%, with a payout ratio of 36.62%.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 391.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 85,903 shares of the data storage provider's stock after acquiring an additional 68,428 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in NetApp were worth $7,546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 375.0% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Olde Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised its position in NetApp by 54.9% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in NetApp by 929.6% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC raised its position in NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $119.21.

NetApp Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NTAP traded down $1.2190 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $107.9410. The stock had a trading volume of 1,256,379 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,020,841. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $105.42 and a 200 day moving average of $100.65. The company has a market cap of $21.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 1.480-1.580 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares in the company, valued at $30,208,812.90. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,302 shares of company stock worth $2,026,379 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.28% 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.