NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Short Interest Update

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,180,000 shares, a drop of 28.0% from the March 15th total of 7,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 2.5% of the company's stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 871 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,871 shares of company stock valued at $3,262,645. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mission Wealth Management LP increased its holdings in NetApp by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 3,639 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $321,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 58.7% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $118,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 41,209 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,633,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 16,283 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,436,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $3.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $101.81. 1,346,743 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,913,877. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The company has a market cap of $21.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $97.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $87.36. NetApp has a 52-week low of $60.92 and a 52-week high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.02 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $97.94.

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.