NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian Sells 8,500 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 296,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,208,812.90. This represents a 2.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

George Kurian also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, April 21st, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00.

NetApp Trading Down 0.4%

NTAP stock traded down $0.45 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $102.75. The company had a trading volume of 1,859,648 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,178,892. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $94.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.42. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.80 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $117.79.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 47.0% in the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 735 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 111.8% in the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 16,799 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,950,000 after purchasing an additional 8,869 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 611.3% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 9,105 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 7,825 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 168.1% during the fourth quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 6,856 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $796,000 after purchasing an additional 4,299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 294,309 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $34,163,000 after buying an additional 11,842 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About NetApp

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.

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