Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Key Points

• Bahl & Gaynor Inc. sold 93,314 shares of NetApp, Inc., reducing its stake by 47.9% to own 101,538 shares, valued at approximately $8.9 million as of the latest quarter.
• CEO George Kurian recently sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock for a total of $925,225, reducing his ownership by 2.91%.
• NetApp reported Q1 earnings of $1.93 per share, beating estimates, and raised its FY 2026 guidance to 7.600-7.900 EPS.

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lessened its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 47.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 101,538 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 93,314 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.'s holdings in NetApp were worth $8,919,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $2,375,363,000 after purchasing an additional 597,956 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,096,679 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $623,383,000 after purchasing an additional 72,223 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in NetApp by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $308,107,000 after purchasing an additional 384,362 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,653,000 after purchasing an additional 220,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in NetApp by 24.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,824,327 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $327,848,000 after purchasing an additional 550,607 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

NetApp Trading Down 2.5%

NetApp stock traded down $2.93 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $114.29. The stock had a trading volume of 813,022 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,046,304. The stock has a market cap of $22.90 billion, a PE ratio of 20.18, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 123.22%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.80 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. NetApp's payout ratio is 36.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday. Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with 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 "Hold" and an average price target of $123.64.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. The trade was a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total transaction of $105,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 23,251 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,462,280.90. This trade represents a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 27,802 shares of company stock valued at $2,951,604. 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.