NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Sells $684,185.04 in Stock

Key Points

• NetApp director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares at an average price of $194.04, generating $684,185.04 and reducing his ownership by 17.82% to 16,264 shares.
• NetApp reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $2.58 versus the $2.12 consensus and revenue of $2.02 billion, up 29.9% year over year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, equivalent to a $2.08 annualized payout and a 1.1% yield; analysts maintain a consensus “Hold” rating with an average price target of $193.86.

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.04, for a total value of $684,185.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 16,264 shares in the company, valued at $3,155,866.56. The trade was a 17.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $1.56 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $191.49. 1,917,895 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,695,069. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.16. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $209.06. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $183.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $145.44. The company has a market cap of $37.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.01, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 EPS 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 company had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. NetApp's payout ratio is 29.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. National Pension Service raised its stake in NetApp by 145.1% during the second quarter. National Pension Service now owns 539,405 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $83,478,000 after purchasing an additional 319,332 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its position in NetApp by 165.3% during the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 11,300 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,749,000 after purchasing an additional 7,041 shares during the last quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 179.8% in the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 19,686 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,047,000 after buying an additional 12,650 shares in the last quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $230,000. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the second quarter worth about $286,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America raised their price objective on NetApp from $180.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Wall Street Zen raised NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, September 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $193.86.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc NASDAQ: NTAP is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds and public clouds. Its offerings are designed to support enterprise workloads such as databases, business applications, artificial intelligence and virtualized computing.

The company's portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid storage systems, cloud storage services, data management software and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions.

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