NetApp, Inc. $NTAP Stock: Bahl & Gaynor LLC Decreases Position

Key Points

• Bahl & Gaynor cut its NetApp stake by 44.4% in the third quarter, selling 143,279 shares and retaining 179,579 shares valued at about $37.7 million. Institutional investors collectively own 92.17% of the company.
• Analysts have a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating on NetApp, with an average price target of $205.24. Recent targets range from $171 to $250.
• NetApp’s latest reported quarter beat expectations, with EPS of $2.58 versus a $2.12 estimate and revenue up 29.9% year over year to $2.02 billion. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share.

Bahl & Gaynor LLC lessened its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) by 44.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 179,579 shares of the data storage provider's stock after selling 143,279 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor LLC owned about 0.09% of NetApp worth $37,726,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 214.6% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 7,727 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,623,000 after acquiring an additional 5,271 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $235,682,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $2,210,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $1,571,000. Finally, Insight Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $5,845,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on NTAP. Daiwa Securities Group raised their target price on NetApp from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Wall Street Zen lowered NetApp from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, October 31st. Argus set a $225.00 price objective on NetApp and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 11th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on NetApp from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $205.24.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $175.99 on Wednesday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $203.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $152.70. 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 market cap of $34.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.70, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.52. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.15 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. 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, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total transaction of $533,283.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 46,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,514,454.40. This trade represents a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.04, for a total value of $684,185.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 16,264 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,155,866.56. This represents a 17.82% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 172,524 shares of company stock valued at $34,824,306 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc. develops data storage and data management technologies for businesses and other organizations. Its offerings support workloads across on-premises infrastructure, public cloud environments and hybrid settings, with services for storing, managing, protecting and moving data. The company's portfolio includes its ONTAP data management software, all-flash and hybrid-flash storage systems, object storage, and cloud storage and data services. NetApp also provides tools to help customers manage data across different environments and offers infrastructure through its Keystone storage-as-a-service model.

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